[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

What is your source for that information? Sure, Germany has the largest economy in Europe but that doesn't mean the country's government is going to Empire-build or Germans are born to dominate other countries.

Oh please. What do you think has been happening for the past 70 years? You have twisted my meaning. German hegemony is founded on their economic strength and thus the extent to which they can influence what happens to other EU members (see Greece for details, and now the UK as regards Brexit. The United States of Germany is on the way to being under the name European Union.

---------- Post added at 19:41 ---------- Previous post was at 19:33 ----------

Originally Posted by Hugh

Don’t you mean ‘doing what we would like to do, only being more efficient and doing it better’?

e.g. being the main economic power in Europe.

Whatever. If you combine the German psyche with their being the main economic power in Europe, then when stuff happens (like Greece), Germany calls the shots. Now extend that out to a sustained period of German economic surplus against sustained deficits in the other EU countries, who's top dog and calling the shots? And Germany is already doing it.

---------- Post added at 19:49 ---------- Previous post was at 19:41 ----------

Originally Posted by jonbxx

Due to The apportionment system, Germany will naturally have the most MEPs as they have the biggest population at 96 for the 2019 election. Funnily enough, they have the lowest level of representation at 860,000 citizens per MEP. Malta has 77,000 per MEP but only 6 MEPs.

If anything, Germany doesn’t have enough influence in the European Parliament for its population. The EU wide apportionment is 1 MEP for every 716,000 citizens.

Numbers here - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appo...ean_Parliament

The statistical facts about Germany's MEPs do not affect Germany calling the shots. For a start the German governing/coalition party sits in the largest MEP bloc with 217 members. And remember the EU Parliament is as hegemonist as Germany in that they want to trump national parliaments. With Germany controlling the dosh, you can see what you'll get.