Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "How Putin (Accidentally) Re-United Europe - TLDR News" video.
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I don't think he saved the EU, the EU was fine before this but I think he's put the EU on the road to more integration, especially on security and military matters, also some eastern European members like Poland and Hungary might tone down their authoritarian paths now the people are seeing the risks that can lead to as we see in Russia.
Putin has shown how important the EU, NATO and the western alliance is and why they need to stick together, especially if China starts to play games.
The funny thing is about all this, I said to my brother a few years ago that Putin, Trump and Brexit are the best friends of the EU and they don't even know it, anything that's seen as a threat in trying to create division would likely end up creating more unity, being that those 3 things were trying to divide the EU countries, make them weaker with the aim of taking advantage of them, that was always going to backfire at some point, it kinda did with Brexit but it really has now with Putin in that Putin might have speeded up integration in the EU by decades which will be interesting to see the next 10 years.
Not only that, if there were any countries that wanted to leave the EU, I think the odds of that are a lot smaller now and on top of that, more countries are wanting to join it because it's a safe haven, it wouldn't surprise me if public mood in the UK starts to shift on the EU which might actually allow them to rejoin sooner than expected because with Brexit, I thought the UK wouldn't be able to rejoin for at least 2 to 3 decades, now with everything change and if there is the political will in the UK, it could happen in 10 years, but that really depends on future governments in the UK and what the EU and it's members decide, France might still block it.
Either way, this has been a disaster for Putin and it's played right into the hands of pro Europeans, it's also showing a lot of potholes into a lot of the arguments of Eurosceptics, probably why Macron in France is doing so well in the polls, likely because he's been vindicated in what he's been saying for years about what the EU needs to do, now a lot more people are waking up to that fact.
Still I have to say, what a time for the UK to leave the EU when we really need to be in it with everything going on.
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I always find the US is too emotional as a country with big swings, one moment they are your friends, the next they're not, the last 2 decades have shown how the lines blur with the EU and US on that.
If EU members really want to protect their own interest, they are going to have to work much closer together on political and economic matters, in other words, more integration.
As you say, the US doesn't care about Europe, they've shown that countless times throughout history where it's always about self-interest and not about doing the right thing, I find it remarkable how many Europeans don't see that or don't want to see that, that the EU is our best shot at protecting our interest.
With that said, the rise of China is scaring even the US that the US needs a strong EU that shares a lot of the same values, so Putin is uniting the EU, China would likely unite the EU, US and many other countries around the world if they really start to get hostile.
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@elyrexo It's a balancing act, some areas do need more integration to work better, others less so, I do think EU countries will need to pool resources together more and to integrate more, especially on security and military matters, I also think we need to speak with one voice, we've seen many times from the US, China, Russia, Brexit that try to take advantage of that division and many times they are successful with that.
If Europeans are really going to want to be more effective in protecting their interest, they are going to have to work closer together, regardless of what system of government the EU becomes, I suspect the US is starting to realize that they need a strong partner in Europe with the rise of China and the EU is the logical one.
For now, the EU is very strong on economic matters because we more or less speak with one voice, but we are pretty weak on political matters because each members speaks on that which creates a lot more division and allows others outside the EU to take advantage of that division, we've seen a lot of that with Putin, Trump and Brexit.
Either way, it's nice to see that Macron has been vindicated here, he's been warning us for a long time on what we need to do, it took a war to start to wake people up.
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