Is the EU a dictatorship?

The EEC was never 'all about trade' though the initial focus was on trade.

This summarises the Treaty of Rome; the original EU treaty

The Treaty of Rome (1957)
The Treaty of Rome was the founding treaty of the European Economic Community, which later became the EU. The Treaty established four institutions: a Commission, a Council of Ministers, a European Parliament and a European Court of Justice,
The Treaty focused overwhelmingly on economic co-operation. It tried to create closer co-operation on a range of economic and trade issues from agriculture to overseas aid, commerce to taxation, but it also set out a wider political vision for ‘an ever closer union’ to eliminate the barriers which divide Europe.

www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/OS.7.Treaties.pdf

The European Economic Community was a regional organisation that aimed to bring about economic integration among its member states. It was created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957. Upon the formation of the European Union in 1993, the EEC was incorporated and renamed the European Community. Wikipedia

I'm not actually going back to Roman times.

Snap, MOnica!

The Common Market was at the heart of it.

That standardisation of bananas trope is old and has been discredited.

But let us note that it was an invention of Liar Johnson...

The Common Market is still at the heart of the EU. Improved upon by the introduction of the Single Market, proposed and driven by the UK.

Gonegirl as the 'Roman times' in this context is 1957 and the OP was about the EEC in the 1950s, I am not sure of the relevance of your remarks. Can you explain?

MaizieD We often disagree, but, in actuality we are also often at one in our opinions.

Maizie and M0nica- if only everyone knew about why the EU was created. .
I suppose it's only those of us who lived through WW2.

Oh for God's sake! I wasn't referring to the Treaty of Rome.

It was a sarcastic piss take.

Let's say we know the same things, MOnica

We do interpret them differently from time to time...

Because you were harping back to just after the war. Fed dit?

No. Of course you don't.

Geddit. Not fed it

I didn't live through WWII, Fennel but I was born not so long after.

I welcomed joining the EEC as it helped to overcome lingering distaste for Germany (fed by films and popular culture of the 50s) and made me feel that we were part of Europe, not existing on the periphery of an alien culture..

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".

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

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.

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

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...

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

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

Dictator apologies for typo

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.

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

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.

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.