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A big 'non' by the French yesterday.
I'm still wondering what to vote myself next wednesday. Do I say 'ja' or 'nee' to the new European constitution?? Although I favour a strong Europe, I fear that a lot of things that I find important and that are achieved in the Netherlands will be lost in a big Europe.
I know how to contradict myself ;)
Comments
The idea is fantastic, but the way they enacted it is more bureaucratic than former Soviet Union.
And the salaries of the Brussels officers are ridiculous.
FUKK European Union!
Look up:
1. fukk
Alternate spelling of "fuck". Mainly used to beat profanity filters.
"Fukk this"
Source: Jim, Dec 30, 2003
Urban Dictionary is not appropriate for all audiences. ©1999-2005.
1. FuuK
a curse word suplement, that is used to express disapointment or confusion, that sounds alot like fuck but is pronunced slower and in a deeper tone
what the FuuK!!!
Source: DJWeezy, Jul 17, 2003
In spite of being quite an advocate of European integration myself Giscard and co just have a screw loose. Endowing a highly complicated and intangible mechanism like the status quo of the European Union with a makeshift constitution is just utter madness. The things the EU has come up with in recent months (like the proposed services directive) is just beyond words and has to be nipped in the bud. The EU has done great things in terms of free travel, the Euro, the free circulation of goods and the mutual acceptance of qualifications in member countries. But I guess we should keep it at that. You can't force Europe by a lofty contractomania it has to grow. The ideological cleavages especially in the new Europe are just way too big and you can't force the Polish, the French, the German and the English (not even thinking about the Turkish) to have one opinion on things like religion.
That's why my NEE is on its way already, Biker. (not that it matters anyway after France said no it's less than a formality)
VIVE LA FRANCE!
Typical - ungrateful Frogs.
Dr. J. Onno de Beaufort Winjholds presented some rather scary data on how the Euro has progressed against the $$. I sensed some backpeddaling as he showed some graphs that would lead one to believe the the EU was really trying to stick it to the US economy. The backpedaling occured I think when he realized he was presentign to a US audience.
Herve Carre was asked point blank about how tthought the vote would go and he said it would pass... I guess he called it wrong. He recommended that France needs to implement a bunch of structural reforms. Later, when I spoek to him privately I asked about what specific reforms need to happen. he told me that people have to learn that you can't work a 35 hour work week and expect to be competitve. Certain monopliptic practices need to go: There are not enough taxi cabs in Paris to meet demand which keeps the prices articifially inflated.
Paul O'neil was there and he in essense forecast tthat there would be one currency in the world by 2050!
The french NON vote will give us some time in the US to hopefully address our trade imbalance which is now at 7% of GDP. Hopefully is will keep some of the euro inefffeciies in place a while longer so we can figure out how to increase US savings and decrease consumption before we all start learning Mandarin
Forget this union. You really all hate each other.
Just have another war, redifine boundaries. As usual Australia will have to step in to show you how to do it properly, and the Americans will bomb the shit out off all the countries which have nothing to offer and have the most ugly people.
That way we all know where we stand, and fascists and racisits reign supreme. Bring back dictators I say.
They are also saying the constitution is nothing but a collection of all the treaties in one book but obviously i didn't have the chance to go through the hundred of pages there are - so if I were you I would vote YES but I know that every country has its own pecularities.
Didn't some well known person once say: If there's a referendum you'll always get an answer. But the answer seldom is about the question asked.
The great thing about this referendum was that the issues around ''Europe' have become important to a lot of people. For decades there were all kind of developments in which only politicians did participate. The referendum has stimulated us to think and discusse what Europe means to us, the way we want to participate in it etc. etc.
Many of the 'Nee'-voters aren't anti-Europe but have lost contact with it.
Nurse!