Option A:
France
Luxembourg
Portugal
Italy
Greece
All 5 are Eurozone17 members
Option B:
A5 + Belgium
Option C:
B6 + Bulgaria + Romania
8 members, 6 of then in Eurozone17
Option D:
B6 + Germany + Austria + Slovenia
9 members, all Eurozone17 members
Option E:
D9 + Bulgaria + Romania
11 members, 9 Eurozone17 members
Option F:
Eurozone17 - Finland - Ireland
15 members, all but 2 of the Eurozone17 members
Option G:
EU27 minus UK, Hungary, Czech Rep., Sweden
In other words, the 23 that agreed to the Europlus pact a few months ago
More options are possible. Will list them plus put more beef in the 7 ones listed in this post in forthcoming post.
A key "technical" issue is whether a political union should include all Eurozone17 members or could function w/o some Eurozone members.
Plus whether it could include and function including some of the 10 non-Eurozone members.
Interesting, times, too interesting, but EUrope has to move forward., someway, somehow, finally.
Feel free to comment via comments to this post or to http://www.twitter.com/npthinking
There is also an "EU Political Union Now!" group om Facebook.
Showing posts with label federalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label federalism. Show all posts
Friday, June 17, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Europe keeps failing in its History and Logic exams!
Can one imagine what the world would be like today of the US states had decided not to create a federal union but created a free trade area (as some Britons and other Eurosceptics want the EU to be) instead?
If the Ancient Greek city-states has created federal union in the 5th or 4th century BC, the world be different today. Rome would have probably more emerged, among other things.
In 2000 years or maybe much sooner, people will be saying the same re Europe!
Why is it so difficult for European to wise up after thousands of years of experiences and unite?
Europe has/is being "played" by the USA, the Asian tigers, Japan, China and others, plus the global financial system. Time to put an end to that or not?
Unless Europe grabs the bull by the horns, austerity in Europe will last. Time to talk of EU interest.
If the Ancient Greek city-states has created federal union in the 5th or 4th century BC, the world be different today. Rome would have probably more emerged, among other things.
In 2000 years or maybe much sooner, people will be saying the same re Europe!
Why is it so difficult for European to wise up after thousands of years of experiences and unite?
Europe has/is being "played" by the USA, the Asian tigers, Japan, China and others, plus the global financial system. Time to put an end to that or not?
Unless Europe grabs the bull by the horns, austerity in Europe will last. Time to talk of EU interest.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
The EU Single Market needs EU political union even more than the Euro single currency!
Some (or most Eurosceptics want the EU to revert to a common market or free trade area that they think that the EEC was all about (yet see my post The EEC was never (mainly) about economics of May 27, 2011, for an analysis why this was not the case, though).
Economics, trade in partuculat, was used as a way to bring the countries and people of Europe closer together with a view to creating better conditions for political (and defense) union than the ones in the early 50s (when the proposal for a European Defense Community was defeated in a vote of the French General Assembly (parliament)).
Yet, what the experience of the WTO rules based "free trade", including the failure of the Doha Round have shown, is that a free trade area needs single rules (laws) not only in policy areas that affect trade directly but in most policy areas. Even more so, a single market, as the one in the EU since 1/1/1993!
The EU way of creating those single/uniform laws/rules in the EU Single Market, via EU reguations (that become national law in the member states directly) and EU Directives (that need to be transposed into the national legal systems of the member states by those member states governments) did work, but IMO only to a certain extent.
Subsidiarity, a Roman principle re law making, that is embedded in the EU system, says that laws must be formulated and applied at the most appropriate level, depending on the case, ie the local (municipal regional), national or EU level.
In 2009, more than 40,000 state laws were formulated, voted and applied by the 50 states and territories of the USA. One can argue that this does not make sense, and that such volume of non-national (federal) lawmaking balkanises the country (USA) and creates problems for its citizens and legal entities, eg companies, especially the micros and SME ones. How easy is it for a micro or smal or mid size company to do business inside the whole of the US? Not as easy as non-American might think! How easy is it for an American (worker, free lancer, pensioner, job seeker, etc) to do all the red tape that comes with relocating from one US state to another? Not that easy!
What makes things easier in the US case is the common/single language. Other than that, the US Internal Market is not that single for workers, self employed, micros, SMES, large companies, retired persons etc!
Eg. They have to change car license plates when relocating, pay state and local taxes to a different authority (while their national (federal) tax remains the same). If their insurance company does not operate in the state they are moving to, what do they do? It used to be that banks were not allowed to operate in all 50 states but I think that has changed in recent years. Certain US professsionals who voluntered to go and work in the state of Luisiana after the recent catastrophe were not allowed to because their professional licenses did not apply in the state! Inter-state online commerce was exempt from any sales tax because as I read, otherwise it would render it difficult if not impossible (I am not sure if the exemption still applies or what has happened recently)!
It is one thing for local and state governments in the US to decide how to spend their budgets, ie that does not distort the single entity of the US systemics, but when laws and taxes are different then people and legal entities face not a single system, but one with local sub-systems. Ie internal market for products, services, capital and work, in principle, but in practice not single.
That is why I am now examining the German federal model closer to see happen "on the ground" of the Federal Republic of Germany's federal model. Relevant post coming soon.
The situation is much worse in the alleged EU Single Market. First, all income tax is collected by member states, no national EU (federal) income tax. Even double tax avoidance is based on bilateral agreements based on a OECD prototype! That is because the EU has no competence in matters of income tax, of persons and of legal entities! Only some in indirect taxation (eg VAT).
So, the types of single laws that a polity has, are the types required not only for a well founded single currency but more importanty, for a single market, for firms and persons, as well. Otherwise the alleged single market works only for large companies and wealthy individuals who can hire the types of experts needed to weed through the labyrinth of state and local laws. That is why mobility intra-EU is very low compared to the US or eg intra-Germany. The 21+ languages is but a relatively small barrier to the EU Single Market for real people and the real economy!
Economics, trade in partuculat, was used as a way to bring the countries and people of Europe closer together with a view to creating better conditions for political (and defense) union than the ones in the early 50s (when the proposal for a European Defense Community was defeated in a vote of the French General Assembly (parliament)).
Yet, what the experience of the WTO rules based "free trade", including the failure of the Doha Round have shown, is that a free trade area needs single rules (laws) not only in policy areas that affect trade directly but in most policy areas. Even more so, a single market, as the one in the EU since 1/1/1993!
The EU way of creating those single/uniform laws/rules in the EU Single Market, via EU reguations (that become national law in the member states directly) and EU Directives (that need to be transposed into the national legal systems of the member states by those member states governments) did work, but IMO only to a certain extent.
Subsidiarity, a Roman principle re law making, that is embedded in the EU system, says that laws must be formulated and applied at the most appropriate level, depending on the case, ie the local (municipal regional), national or EU level.
In 2009, more than 40,000 state laws were formulated, voted and applied by the 50 states and territories of the USA. One can argue that this does not make sense, and that such volume of non-national (federal) lawmaking balkanises the country (USA) and creates problems for its citizens and legal entities, eg companies, especially the micros and SME ones. How easy is it for a micro or smal or mid size company to do business inside the whole of the US? Not as easy as non-American might think! How easy is it for an American (worker, free lancer, pensioner, job seeker, etc) to do all the red tape that comes with relocating from one US state to another? Not that easy!
What makes things easier in the US case is the common/single language. Other than that, the US Internal Market is not that single for workers, self employed, micros, SMES, large companies, retired persons etc!
Eg. They have to change car license plates when relocating, pay state and local taxes to a different authority (while their national (federal) tax remains the same). If their insurance company does not operate in the state they are moving to, what do they do? It used to be that banks were not allowed to operate in all 50 states but I think that has changed in recent years. Certain US professsionals who voluntered to go and work in the state of Luisiana after the recent catastrophe were not allowed to because their professional licenses did not apply in the state! Inter-state online commerce was exempt from any sales tax because as I read, otherwise it would render it difficult if not impossible (I am not sure if the exemption still applies or what has happened recently)!
It is one thing for local and state governments in the US to decide how to spend their budgets, ie that does not distort the single entity of the US systemics, but when laws and taxes are different then people and legal entities face not a single system, but one with local sub-systems. Ie internal market for products, services, capital and work, in principle, but in practice not single.
That is why I am now examining the German federal model closer to see happen "on the ground" of the Federal Republic of Germany's federal model. Relevant post coming soon.
The situation is much worse in the alleged EU Single Market. First, all income tax is collected by member states, no national EU (federal) income tax. Even double tax avoidance is based on bilateral agreements based on a OECD prototype! That is because the EU has no competence in matters of income tax, of persons and of legal entities! Only some in indirect taxation (eg VAT).
So, the types of single laws that a polity has, are the types required not only for a well founded single currency but more importanty, for a single market, for firms and persons, as well. Otherwise the alleged single market works only for large companies and wealthy individuals who can hire the types of experts needed to weed through the labyrinth of state and local laws. That is why mobility intra-EU is very low compared to the US or eg intra-Germany. The 21+ languages is but a relatively small barrier to the EU Single Market for real people and the real economy!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
No need for the EU to re-invent the wheel re federalist political union
More EU, more federalism is actually the solution to the financial crisis and many other problems.
By that I mean an immediate move to Political Union which should have been decided in Maastricht in 1991 before or instead of the EMU.
A political union, US or German (FRG) federal style with a real budget financed by a federal income tax (like the US one).
Collected by a federal EU "IRS" (again like the US).
No need for the EU to re-invent the wheel when it comes to federalist political union. The US and German federal models are there. Almost pret-a-porter (ready wear) with some minor adjustments that does not require a master tailor but will (leaership.
By that I mean an immediate move to Political Union which should have been decided in Maastricht in 1991 before or instead of the EMU.
A political union, US or German (FRG) federal style with a real budget financed by a federal income tax (like the US one).
Collected by a federal EU "IRS" (again like the US).
No need for the EU to re-invent the wheel when it comes to federalist political union. The US and German federal models are there. Almost pret-a-porter (ready wear) with some minor adjustments that does not require a master tailor but will (leaership.
Monday, April 18, 2011
The key ideological divide in the EU27 these days is ....
IMO these days in Europe, the key (but not of course the only) ideological divide is not "right vs left", but "pro vs anti European Union".
But it seems that the pessimist sections of the pro EU population in the EU is more detrimental to the EU and to the cause of deeper (political etc) union than the anti-EUers! It is high time for the pro-EU and federalism EUropeans to speak up!
The road to full union is not via auto-pilot!
But it seems that the pessimist sections of the pro EU population in the EU is more detrimental to the EU and to the cause of deeper (political etc) union than the anti-EUers! It is high time for the pro-EU and federalism EUropeans to speak up!
The road to full union is not via auto-pilot!
Friday, July 24, 2009
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