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If the UK left the EU which other countries would follow?
BrokenArrow
Posts: 21,665 Forum Member
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Countries like Ireland and Denmark are dependent on the UK for their survival and only joined because the UK did.
Pulling out of the EU would probably mean these two would have to leave as well.
Any others?
Pulling out of the EU would probably mean these two would have to leave as well.
Any others?
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Is that why George Osborne used several billions of British taxpayers money to bail out the the Irish government, back in November 2010 ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11807769
Watch the dominoes fall
Holland
San Marino could be a touch and go case.
If the UK left, the whole structure of the EU would have to be revised. Those with issues might well use the opportunity to correct things that they see as fundamentally wrong.
Any evidence? Of course not.
The EU's single market, which even if the UK left we'd still be a part of, is the reason why all of these countries will want to remain in the EU. The EU's institutions govern the single market and short of idiotic populist scaremongering forcing a government's hand there's no reason to give that influence up.
In papal circles, there are rumours that the Vatican City are having second thoughts....
What influence?
San Marino isn't in the EU to start with.
The loan to Ireland had nothing to do to with the EU and was done on a bilateral basis to our closest neighbour (the only one we share a land border with) and one of our biggest trading partners. If the Irish economy had crashed it would have had a devastating knock on affect on the UK and especially Northern Ireland. We couldn't afford to let that happen.
It's surrounded by Italy. There could be a domino effect which another poster referred to further up this thread.
I wonder if Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia will have talks about quitting en masse ?
Makes you wonder why Angela Merkel dipped into German taxpayers pockets, too, to bail out Greece et al.
Perhaps she's motivated by the same concerns as Mr Osborne when he dipped into British taxpayers pockets to bail out the Irish government.
Two entirely different reasons and motives
I'm not trying to be obnoxious here, but that question doesn't really make much sense in this context. What I said above is that the EU's institutions are where the single market is governed so every EU state wants to have a place at the table. Saying "what influence?" implies that somehow every state lacks influence.
Same concerns about the alternative options. And same result: keeping an economy afloat using other people's money.
The only state that has real influence is Germany, our influence involves standing on the sidelines throwing stones and saying 'we don't particularly want to do that' and the occasional veto.
There's a massive difference between Germany being the most dominant country in European Council negotiations and what happens in the legislative process. If you look at the actual evidence on who gets their way most often in legislative negotiations there's no evidence for the theory of German dominance.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/01/08/countries-which-have-most-success-in-council-negotiations/
Of course few people actually bother to read the studies on the subject and are content to trumpet received wisdom.
would that 'wisdom' be received from the Daily Express and Daily Mail ?
You can understand why governing UK politicians do not want to allow UK voters a choice in the matter.
That all sounds very condescending(and left wing), would you also like to restrict voting in general elections to the owners of such 'wisdom' as well?
Condescending ? Probably.
Left wing ? Possibly, but not necessarily.
It has crossed my mind. I realise it would not go down well.
Not a fan of univeral suffrage then?
Late 19th Century aristocrats weren't terribly keen either.
When you think of the efforts by the women suffragettes, the Labour movement and not least the Liberals, it would be a pity to turn the clock back.
BIB, but we don't
Not really.
In the past, sufferage was based on wealth and property.
Restricting sufferage to the journals one reads* and level of education has crossed my mind.
* and not the Guardian either. I mean a proper newspaper like Financial Times.
Europe is frightened of Germany seventy years later and they are back to being bullies - as if they ever stopped. Or as a Swiss friend of mine said, the Germans are just selfish.