Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
Damien, the EEA was created mostly as a waiting room for States whose governments anticipated full EU membership would follow. That's why it carries a heavy regulatory burden, a la Norway, where despite many years of fierce campaigning the political class has never persuaded the citizens to vote 'yes' in a referendum. The Norwegian government has always enthusiatsically implemented EU directives because it has always believed that it would soon enough be a full member and would have to implement the directives anyway. Unfortunately for the Norwegian government, the democratic voice of the Norwegian people keeps getting in the way. The Norwegian people deserve better than the grubby political consensus that exists ove there, which is still pro-EU even though there is now a growing realisation that accession is a more distant prospect than ever.
There is no reason - absolutely no reason whatsoever - to presume that Britiain outside the EU would have to deal with the EU on EEA or Norwegian terms. This is simply yet more Europhile scaremongering.
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So what will the agreement be? The EEA is the best example we have of a country not being part of the EU but being part of the free trade agreements. Maybe Switzerland as well. There is no example of a country doing what we propose to do, leaving the EU but keeping all the trade advantages. It is not Europhile scaremongering to therefore look at the closest example there is.
I don't think the concerns are scaremongering. I think they're valid. Rather than scaremongering it could be that there are actual ramifications to consider on this issue and two sides to the debate.
---------- Post added at 09:37 ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem
Political grandstanding and rhetoric aside, I bet the EU would be a lot less worried about the UK leaving if we had a trade surplus with them and were net beneficiaries. At the moment the only thing keeping the Eurozone afloat is the German economy and, IIRC, that shows signs of stalling.
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These numbers are temporary. We're not talking about the next year or the next 5 years. We're talking about a change that could affect us, for better or worse, over the next 10, 20, 50 years. Do we see Europe being a key market as we go forward? Europe is obviously a basketcase right now but I don't see it stagnating and falling over the next few decades. Conversely we might be fundamentally unable to be apart of it if it become more united....