The EU and Poland are on a collision course.

Going back to the news about Poland ...

The EU can't kick Poland out. They could withhold cash, but then Poland can continually veto the EU budget, bringing the whole edifice to a standstill. They might try to take Poland's voting powers away, but Hungary has already said they will block any such attempt.

Urmstongran

Hi Alegrias ?
Glad you’ve joined in. ?
Semantics. Poland is up against Brussels.
I know where I’d place my money.
?

fascism

Urmstongran

Going back to the news about Poland ...

The EU can't kick Poland out. They could withhold cash, but then Poland can continually veto the EU budget, bringing the whole edifice to a standstill. They might try to take Poland's voting powers away, but Hungary has already said they will block any such attempt.

Again - you said this is where you'd put your money. I'm accepting your offer.

Mind you ... I thought Trump would win, remember? £50 on a bet? By ‘eck lass you’ve some brass down tha’ way!

Two years ago a survey was run. Will the EU still be as is in 20 years time. It appears the majority of Europeans don't think it will be.

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/15/majority-of-europeans-expect-end-of-eu-within-20-years

“The European Union risks collapse or becoming a dictatorship if it continues to blackmail Warsaw over fears of "Polexit", the Polish prime minister said on Monday.

In a letter to EU leaders, Mateusz Morawiecki accused the bloc of "punishing" and "starving" Poland with threats to withhold £48 billion of Covid recovery funds in a row over the supremacy of European law.

Mr Morawiecki said Poland remained a "loyal member" of the EU but warned that the bloc was “turning into an anti-democratic federal superstate that trampled over national sovereignty”.

lots of wet pantaloons here!

Wet pantaloons! I love it. What does it mean?

MaizieD

It's because the Polish government are going down an authoritarian undemocratic route, which is contrary to the conditions for membership of the EU.

Vegansrock is correct, the Polish people don't want to leave the EU. It's their government that is playing silly beggars. They're not bothered about 'the will of the people'.

This is true, the people like the EU, and why not indeed? Poland has paid in very little to the EU pot and they get so much back! That wasn’t the situation here at all.Polish people left en masse also, to more lucrative EU countries to work.
The government doesn’t want to leave either, but is enjoying
Having their cake and eating it.They want their own rules enforcing over the EU ones ( so did we, but we had to leave to get it.)They and Hungary will hold up the monies granted to all EU countries to help their economies after Covid. They will mess about some more until such time as EU patience is stretched then they will agree as long as they get a bigger pot of money.

Zoejory

Wet pantaloons! I love it. What does it mean?

The EU bureaucrats wetting themselves??

no, not them!

The problem that the EU has is that they need to channel ever more money to the net recipients, or they will leave. There’s going to come a point at which the Germans won’t stand for that any longer. Even the French will ultimately fall out with Germany, as they won’t compromise on CAP payments.

Add in the accession of 6 Balkan countries, all likely to be net recipients, and currently postponed until 2030, and this EU edifice looks rickety.

Every country who wishes to become and remain a member of the economic block knows that it must satisfy certain conditions.

If the Copenhagen Criteria is not met then it cannot become a member, or if it is a member suffer the consequences of not complying with the stated criteria.

Pretty simple to understand isn’t it?

The U.K. will be in exactly the same position if it ever succeeds in joining another economic block in the world. It will have to comply with existing criteria, that impinges on its sovereignty in order to become a member. Should it break these criteria - and on this governments record it is very likely, - then we can expect consequences.

Because of the way the EU operates - put simply - helps every member to become fully functioning economies by investing in its infrastructure, areas of deprivation etc, countries like a Poland who are more recent members benefit from a good inflow of EU assistance in the form of income. People in Poland have watched as their country has developed since membership in 2004 from a relatively low level of GDP to more than doubling it within 10 years.

Polish people understand how much better off they are and as we all know make huge use of FoM. They understand that the rule of law is the mark of a civilising society.

They like us have a populist right wing government made up of a coalition. Their government like our government are seeking to bring greater political control over an independent judiciary.

An independent judiciary is one of the criteria of the Copenhagen agreement.

That loss of judicial independence risks the valued concept of all being equal before the law, and is usually deemed vital in a democracy.

That is the point of disagreement.

Urmstongran

Mind you ... I thought Trump would win, remember? £50 on a bet? By ‘eck lass you’ve some brass down tha’ way!

I remember. I also remember that I thought Trump would win and that I thought we would vote to leave, regrettable though they both are, so I wouldn’t have accepted a bet on those.

However, I accept your bet on Poland leaving. Shall we ask another GNetter to hold the stakes?

vegansrock

Kardinsky I don’t know what sort of medal you’d be giving my now dead mother in law who voted leave to get rid of Nigerians

It’s really weird, pretty much every diehard remainer I’ve come across online has a racist mother in law. Why marry into a family who hold such views? It’s a mystery.

One of the most incredible comments I've ever read on GN!
Who 'marries into a family' - do we live in medieval times?

At this stage, seeing the jubilation of some and the comments- I am pas disagreeing.

Some of you scare me - really scare me.

Oh come off it kali surely you know the expression ‘ marries into’ it’s an old British phrase which everybody understands.
Only the other week a neighbour complained of the family she had married into as a ‘strange lot’.
Kandinsky ? yes, there have been a lot of those posts over the last five or six years ( racist MIL’s)

Blimey if I'd had to choose a husband based on his mother's views I would have run a mile from my DH. He and she are chalk and cheese. I fell in love with him.....not her.

Do all your family entirely share your views Kandinsky?

I suppose its one thing to vote to make your own country poorer and weaker, but to be gleeful, and to hope for the demise of the biggest and most successful peace-making project in the history of Europe, takes a special kind of thoughtlessness.

My MiL wasn't racist. She did have some odd views though. But even she didn't vote for Brexit. Had more sense.

In India girls marry into their husband's family, some never see their own family again.

Surely people in the UK before they marry know something about their husband's to be family whether they are racist or not ?

This has taken an odd turn.....

Do all your family entirely share your views Kandinsky?

Most of them yes, but then my views are pretty normal & not extreme.
I’ve been called Alt right wing ( on here I think? ) simply for voting brexit, so I know people who claim to be politically aware know absolutely nothing.
Despite voting conservative in the last election ( because I wanted brexit done & all other parties were going to ignore it ) I’ve voted for Labour in the past.
But if my partners parents held extreme political views I’d worry they’d be passed onto him somewhere along the line - even if he hid it well.

That's an interesting view Kandinsky, but I don't believe views are passed down in families. My husband's mother was a religious zealot who mentally and physically abused her child. After 40 years of marriage my husband is exactly the kind, loving, gentle, open minded person he was on the day I met him.

I hear what you're saying about your not holding extreme views, but I reckon many people might find the following on the outside edge of moderate.

"I knew once we left the rest would follow. So proud of my country for voting to leave. ?? Every leave voter should get a medal! "

Excellent post at 07.43 Wwmk2 ?