Is the EU a dictatorship?

Back to the op … the systems of the EU are more democratic than those in the UK.

Eisenhower and Kennedy both supported the economic and political integration of Western Europe as a bulwark against the Soviet Union and Communism. The aim always was for political unity. It was also the reason why the US spent so much money on the Marshall Plan. They realised that countries with close economic bonds would have more incentive to remain friendly to each other.

Politicians in the US and Western Europe all learnt from the mistakes of 1918, when Germany had been quite deliberately weakened. No individual Western European country could ever hope to compete with the US either economically or as a voice on the political stage.

P.S. In case it's not clear. The EU has always had a political purpose, to avoid war and to strengthen the ties between different nations through co-operation.

Jean Monnet

There will be no peace in Europe if the States rebuild themselves on the basis of national sovereignty, with its implications of prestige politics and economic protection…. The countries of Europe are not strong enough individually to be able to guarantee prosperity and social development for their peoples. The States of Europe must therefore form a federation or a European entity that would make them into a common economic unit.

Speech to the French National Liberation Committee (5 August 1943)

Jean Monnet, 1888 - 1979, was a man of his time. During his lifetime he saw European states almost continually at war, directly or indirectly, to expand their areas of control in Europe and their Empires, culminating in two devastating world wars. He, absolutely correctly, IMO, identified 'sovereignty' (as expressed through populist nationalism) and economic competition as a root cause of war. I think we forget how pervasive, damaging and inhumane these struggles for 'supremacy were as we don't experience them close to in our lives any more.

He (also quite rightly, IMO) identified a common purpose as being the means to overcome this state of perpetual competition and warfare.

There will be no peace in Europe if the States rebuild themselves on the basis of national sovereignty, with its implications of prestige politics and economic protection …

That common purpose was clearly economic and his thinking influenced the initial setting up of the European Coal and Steel Community, giving France and Germany joint control of the industries vital to the production of weapons of war and to rebuilding the shattered infrastructure of their, and other European, countries. The EU grew from these beginnings and it worked. There may be national pride and some element of competition, and old enmities die hard, but the spirit of mutual co-operation and interdependence makes it unthinkable that nations within the union should ever contemplate going to war with their European neighbours.

The States of Europe must therefore form a federation or a European entity that would make them into a common economic unit .

As Monnet was a man of his times we are people of a later and altogether more peaceful time. Europe has achieved the 'or' part of Monnet's proposal, a common economic unit' and, as far as I can see, member states do not have much appetite for the first proposition, even though some individuals may .

There will always be people who champion extremes, be it communism or the total anarchy of 'free markets' but pragmatism and centrism prevail if the mass of people support it. The EU is a body of individual states which have to reach consensus through its democratic institutions and that consensus is shaped by the people who vote for the national parties which represent them in the EU. They don't have to consent to blindly implement ideas which had far more relevance 80 years ago than they have today.

Enjoy

Thanks maddyone just off for some retail therapy and to pick up my M &S beauty advent calendar ( Mr.Gravy has a previous engagement so I am going on my own yippee!!)

Sorry Granny, you made me smile with your response, I’m not smiling at the image of you choking. Hope you’ okay.

Ha ha Granny, I would have put something different except that the OP was asking because she didn’t know much about the EU. You’re right, leaving is extremely difficult but all countries can leave if they want to, the problems are caused by the leaving country wanting a deal. We could have just walked at the end of two years, no problem. But we wanted a deal, that’s the problem.
And the moving towards ‘ever closer union’ was a sticking point for me, but I decided to vote remain somewhat reluctantly for economic reasons. Now I’ve absolutely had enough, I want to leave. With a new referendum I will definitely vote leave.

maddyone the last part of your last post "and are free to leave" just made me choke on my latte!!!!

The "creeping federalisation" was one of the contributing factors to my X in the leave box on my ballot paper.

Jeannie, the EU is definitely not a dictatorship. It is a supranational group of nations, who have freely joined the organisation and are free to leave.

Yes Nonnie, I agree about that, in fact thank goodness Gordon Brown refused to allow us to join the Euro, Tony Blair would have had us in. He signed the Lisbon Treaty which paved the way for further ‘ever closer union.’
I was trying to give information in my post that informs the OP as she says she’s not sure what the EU is, or is about.
We cannot pretend that the aim of Jean Monnet for a supranational state was not the original aim, it is documented and easy to find from Mr Google. The EU is gradually working towards this, all the evidence is available for anyone to read with a simple google search. Edward Heath was fully aware that joining the EEC would lead inevitably to a loss of sovereignty. It was debated in government. This is why Tony Benn was so opposed to the EEC/EU. The decision was taken by Heath’s government to tell the population that it was simply a trading organisation. This misinformation was repeated during the 1975 Wilson referendum. All this information is freely available online. Some documents have been released under the 30 year freedom of information act.
The OP has a right to the information. If she wishes she can now research for herself. Everything I have written is fact, not opinion. It’s easy to find it on google.

maddy UK has been very good at looking after its own interests by opting out where it felt it was good for us. I don't know if we would have done better in the € but it does show that we are not being 'ruled', 'dominated'or otherwise 'controlled' by them.

Monica has given a very good explanation of what the EU is, and how it was formed. Whilst trade was, and still remains an important part of the EU, it also aims for ‘Ever Closer Union’ and this aim is enshrined in the EU treaties. Ted Heath took the UK into the EEC (now the EU) on the 1st January 1973. A Frenchman by the name of Jean Monnet first conceived of the idea of a supranational state in Europe, which would eventually have all the powers of a country. Originally the first six nations rejected this idea, but by 1957, The Treaty of Rome declared the aim for ever closer union and it set up all the key institutions needed to run a future government of Europe. The Masstricht Treaty, signed by John Major centred on full ‘economic and monetary union’ but Britain won an opt out on monetary union, which was initially meant to be temporary, and the new treaty included moves towards giving the new European Union its own foreign and defence policies.

I agree growstuff, in the campaign around joining it was always made clear that it was much more than just free trade.

Surely the introduction of the euro, in 1999, 20 years ago made that clear as well.

I was born 10 years after the end of WW2 and, as a teenager, I knew about the Common Market and its aims. I was in the Sixth Form in 1973 when the country joined and we learnt about it in General Studies. It was stressed that it was about more than just trade.

The EU 27 have shown remarkable solidarity which makes the case for Remain so much stronger.

Maybe my harping back to WW2 is out of date now.
But the essence of it is, we still need the support of our European friends in the modern 'wars'. Whether military, vs terrorism, or economic.

Dictator apologies for typo

Is the EU a dictatorship?
Answer: no
There is equality between members
Members have a veto
They have elected representatives.
There isn’t a dictatator

No need to cross anything out maizie. We were kids, still doing "drill" in the playground instead of PE.

But still, blue passports, yay!

I don't much care what colour my passport is, so long as it says 'European Union' on it and it gets me into and out of 27 other countries with a minimum of bother...

Would never have occurred to me to think so deeply about it

I was 22 when we joined the EEC; quite old enough to have some thoughts about Europe and our place in it

and to realise that gungho, we won the war, stuff was best left behind us

Fennel I was 21 months when the war ended, but I had a precocious interest in politics and such and in the mid-1950s I read the reports of the Nurembourg Trials, The Diaries of Anne Frank and other books about Nazi Germany. I thought of the babies born when I was born and already dead in the gas chambers by the time I was 21 months.

How anyone having a knowledge of all that went on in Germany during the war, as well as the war itself cannot see how important the EU has been to European peace, I cannot understand. 3 wars between the main European countries 1870 and 1945, none between 1945 - 2020.

At a time when intolerance, fascism and terrorism is invading all European countries, it is more important than ever that Europe and its union holds together.

“existing on the periphery”- well put.
But still, blue passports, yay!

Crikey. I was 16 in 1957. Would never have occurred to me to think so deeply about it. After all, it was only nine or ten years since we, as kids, were singing, "We won the war. In 1944".