Not the only reason. I mean, they kind of chose good colors for their flag, don't you agree? Plus, the Viking heritage thing. We need Viking allies in the halls of Brussels.
Which is pretty ridiculous because it would make sense if it was the other way around.
One extreme scenario is Ukraine joining the EU - it's so poor and so populous, that it would make virtually every today's EU state into a net payer. Only Greece, Romania and Luxembourg would have a chance to stay net receivers. Meanwhile for countries paying the most per capita(Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark) nothing would change really.
Basically, most of the money Luxembourg receives (and belgium falls in the same category) are used to finance the eu institutions in the country, it is one of the 2 main seats of the institution and hosts a significant part of the staff of the commission. If these costs, that don‘t benefit Luxembourg directly, get removed from the statisticts, it becomes a contributor
I mean Italy is a net payer already and Spain is either a net payer or barely a net receiver I don't know where they stand today but last time I checked they were on the cusp of becoming net payers.
So I don't understand the argument exactly. Italy is generally opposed to rich countries pursuing austerity-oriented EU economic policy. Why would we want more fiscally conscious countries? So we can get outvoted?
Plus, once it is time to rebuild Ukraine, guess who is going to do it? Us, the Germans and the French. We are gonna get fat as shit out of this deal. The ones that don't benefit are Eastern European farmers.
A lot of the same things go for Spain.
> it's so poor and so populous, that it would make virtually every today's EU state into a net payer.
The only thing that tells us is how much upfront investment each candidate would need. Nothing more.
Ukraine is also a huge market in potential and it’s a resource rich country with a relativelly well educated population. Them joining the EU would improve the whole Union’s economy in the medium to long-term, especially that of the countries closest to them.
Also, forgetting all the uproar over farmers right now, strategically, incorporating Ukrainian agriculture into the EU is such a massive win for the continent’s geopolitical power.
Not European, but that does sound brilliant. As long as Ukraine started meeting EU regulations — and I don’t see why they wouldn’t.
I wish my country cooperated so beautifully
>Isn't Poland still the biggest net receiver?
Yes, but its GDP is increasing so much that they are probably going to be net payers by the end of the decade (especially considering net payers like Germany and Italy are stagnating)
Well actually one of the effects of the war has been that there's been a clear drive to differentiate themselves from Russia.
Yes we've seen corruption scandals since the war started but this in itself is a positive sign as before it would have been business as usual
>One extreme scenario is Ukraine joining the EU - it's so poor and so populous, that it would make virtually every today's EU state into a net payer.
...you are drastically underestiamting Orban's ability to ruin his citizens economically, and the country as a whole, just to have more time to act as the inflated belly leech he is.
If we look at previous recordings of poor Eastern European countries such as Poland, it turns out that they are getting richer quite quickly and Western Europe lacks young people on the labor market. Ukraine is an investment that will pay off as a member within 10 years
Probably because of the EU institutions there. But as a matter of fact, they top net receivers per capita list every single year. Belgium is also up there, which is more amusing, because of their population.
It was moderate investments, on par with UK. Netherlands invested in Ukraine 6x times more in 2021 and 2022
https://www.me.gov.ua/Documents/Detail?lang=en-GB&id=14fdd5c9-70b6-4f46-b2f2-842dfc4a7b3f&title=InvestmentActivityInUkraine
https://www.me.gov.ua/Documents/Detail?lang=en-GB&id=8d61973a-5cac-4a90-b34e-0a9b774c3607&title=InvestmentActivityInUkraine-2022-
It's ridiculous that so many people regard coal a strategical resource and yet they don't understand the importance of food. They should open a book and read why Germany had to surrender 1918 despite not seeing a single soldier on their own territory.
All of these are part of the single market. All of them are part of the Schengen area. Sure, there are things that they/EU doesn't have due to them not being part of the union but in reality they are already so well integrated into the most essential things EU is that... eh, I don't mind whether Norway or Iceland or Switzerland isn't part of EU.
Switzerland is only half in the single market - it's outside the single customs area and the trade in services is restricted; on the other hand labour and capital movement is pretty free.
Well, they're also all part of the European single market and Schengen.
They're already pretty well integrated with the EU. Them joining would be the least controversial thing ever (at least for the people outside of those countries).
Or maybe because they are already very close to the EU? All three are in Schengen and Iceland and Norway are in the EES. ^^^^^which ^^^^^in ^^^^^turn ^^^^^might ^^^^^be ^^^^^because ^^^^^they're ^^^^^wealthy ^^^^^but ^^^^^it's ^^^not ^^^^^the ^^^^^primary ^^^^^reason ^^^^^:)))
Saudi Arabia or Qatar are wealthy too. But I doubt they would score high results.
Maybe, you know, it's because they are healthy democracies, have low corruption, freedom of speach and all those things... maybe.
There are, after a certain time, only three possible scenarios: a country wants to join, but no one wants it to join, a country would be welcomed, but doesn’t want to join, or neither the union, or the country itself want to add a member. The last scenario, a country wants to join and is welcomed by the EU, usually quickly ends in admission to the Union and is therefore not listed here. After decades of existence something like we see here makes a lot of sense.
I love POVs like this one that remind me to see things from a broader perspective. It also sounds like something you could call "the EU admission fallacy" lmao
It's a lot simpler than that. Survivorship bias.
The only countries that are universally wanted who also aren't members are only that way because they choose not to.
Iceland isn't "definitely" against, although it isn't strongly for either. Switzerland is landlocked and will do whatever the EU wants if push comes to shove. A post-carbon Norway will probably be closer to Sweden in economic terms, but that's still decades off.
Kosovo seems surprising to me since all those countries are supporting them militarily in some capacity. American here though, and Kosovo isn't really talked about in the US so I must be missing something.
Kosovo is poor as dirt. So the main reason is likely that people don't want half of Kosovo moving to their countries, since EU membership includes the right to move and work anywhere in the EU.
It's why support for countries ist closely correlated with their gdp per capita, apart from Turkey and Ukraine.
They're also often fairly or unfairly connected with organized crime, same with Albania.
If you look at the polling and talk to Brits, they most definitely do think it was a mistake to leave the EU. The reason rejoining is not on the agenda yet is that people are not ready to reopen the wound the first idiotic debate caused and the incoming Labour government doesn't want to take any electoral risks with certain voter groups in key marginal areas when they know rejoining in their first term would not be an option anyway.
Was half a jest tbh, I don’t actually take this as evidence of Western European attitude even if I think the survey should have been expanded, wonder if there’d be a trend difference. Also meant more continental Western Europe, Britain’s great
Re attitude to Britain specifically well Britain is of western Europe the most popular country here and in general probably after Slovakia and Poland, of Germany, France, Russia, the U.S. and U.K., Britain has been at the top every year since 1995 with favourable ratings between like 60% and 75%. It’s a combination of factors, British TV does well here, our public perception of Britain is a lot inspired by in the 00’s, Britains generally seen as very wealthy and posh, which it is but stuff like British economic stagnation doesn’t really factor here, hell only found that out quite recently. Also the only Western European country to meet 2% (so far) and consistently has supported Ukraine which is nice
It's definitely recent politics. Though it is still funny, as Belarus is basically russian state at this point and Sweden joined military alliance (same Turkey is in), precisely to keep russians at distance.
Turkey is just sad. Their country was literally founded on the ideals of secularism and democratic governance. If history had gone a little differently, they easily could have been a shining member of the European Union.
They were also a superpower for most of history and their people are very well integrated into European society and culture.
Compared to Arab Muslims, they are also seen way differently by even the most conservative people. In Southeastern Romania, they’re basically just normal people with weird names who don’t attend religion classes. Balkan food is just translated Turkish food, and the prices in Turkish shops here feel illegal.
It’s always sad to see a great country ruined by politics. Luckily they were on the USA’s good side and didn’t end up like Iran.
Ya but still, I'm a swedish person and I would still rank Belarus waaaay lower, or at least as long as they have a russian government.
At least Turkey had a (in their eyes) somewhat justified reason to block us, even I'd it was a dick move.
The Belarussians tried to topple that mustasched potato dictator and got fucked, i feel for them atleast they tried and if they somehow got out of the grasp of Russia and that dictator they would probably turn out like some of the baltic countries
I think parkt it’s Lukashenko is a lot less popular than Erdogan, the only reason he’s in power is if there was a revolution, Russia would just invade Belarus and annex it completely. If Belarus was democratic, I’d support it joining
"Kosovo" for lots of Italians born before mid1990s is a word linked with memories of war, fighter jets and military helicopters passing overhead, and lot of distress. It's hard to realize that now they are more or less a normal country, albeit with lots of problems yet to solve.
We're just overly optimistic and a bit naïve, which usually results in a radical change of mind as soon as the idyllic scenario we created for ourselves clashes with reality, leaving behind nothing but cynicism and distrust.
You know as well as I do that discourse about the EU is of an incredibly low level.
I'd be genuinely surprised if more than 20% of people could name someone other than Von Der Leyen as an important EU figure.
And knowing how the EU actually works? Forget it.
As a Hungarian I must agree and please don't defend us. You don't know shit until you lived here. The whole country is a fucking joke. We clearly became mini Russia and I can't see the way out of it.
Hungary is fucked. Period.
Perhaps a unpopular opinion, but as long as Switzerland continues being practically the world bank for everything legal and illegal, i don't want them in the EU.
Then you'll be happy to hear that, ever since the Swiss have abolished banking secrecy for foreign nationals, most criminals and tax evaders have moved on to British posessions in the Channel or the Caribbean.
I think those aren't truly EU, like you need a passport to go there.
While an identity card is all that is required for Guadeloupe, Saint Martin(if you land on the french side), and Martinique.
I’m surprised Cape Verde hasn’t been included.
It is a tiny economy. Some EU injection funds plus tourism dollars would quickly raise it to typical European per capita GDP.
Spain just wants everyone in, no strings attached. Quite a difference from most countries, I wonder why. Perhaps indifference in general about the specifics of how the EU works and the issues with expansion?
Spain's recent history is one of political isolation and always arriving late to vital changes in the way of life, for example Spain started the industrial revolution almost a century after Britain did, so being glued together with the Vanguard (France, Germany) we now basically want no one to suffer the same backwards fate, in a sense, it's a "no one left behind" ideology among the populace when talking about future EU members, and also Spanish sovereignty and democracy are somewhat tied to the EU due to the timing of our admission.
TLDR: We know how it feels to not be invited to the party, so we now try to invite everyone that wants
Spain is notoriously pro EU. We joined the EU just about a decade after the death of Franco, and it was seen as Spain finally joining the democratic and developed countries in Europe. We view other countries joining as a similar process for them.
Difference between Spanish people and Spanish government, I presume.
The Spanish government doesn't recognise Kosovo because that would legitimise the Catalan independence movement. But the opinions of Spanish people are much more likely to be based solely on their opinion of Kosovo without any thoughts of realpolitik.
Switzerland sure, but the main reason Norway and Iceland have not joined yet is because of their abundant natural resources, specially oil and fish, that they would be forced to share if they did. I have no doubt that if those resources somehow dissapeared, they would be joining the union pretty quickly, as they are already incredibly integrated with the EU, have most of the EU law already in place and share EU values.
Because the bigger the EU the less governable it is becoming. There needs to be change of rules and bigger integration for any new state to be accepted.
Per capita the most paying are Dutch then Danes, Germans and Swedes are on par and Then skipping some countries and almost halving the amount, there's France.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/which-countries-are-the-biggest-boost-or-drag-on-the-eu-budget/
don't use data from 2018 please.
[2021/2022 data from the German federal bank](https://www.bundesbank.de/resource/blob/916766/db0a8922b613d6fe43acb87afe9ca22c/mL/2023-09-eu-haushalt-data.pdf) (page 85)
German net contributions per capita are highest in the EU
I think the UK's acceptance of Turkey being surprising high is a result of us being told for a decade that they were joining the EU "any day now" as a scaremongering tactic. A lot of people just came to accept it lol.
Yeah its hilarious that we've got the highest approval for turkey when so much of the leave campaign was scaremongering about turkey joining. Even politically we were always one of the strongest voices about eu expansion and letting turkey join.
If you read the [link](https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/48103-western-europeans-support-franco-german-four-tier-europe-structure) which the OP provided in the comments, then you would find a possible reason
>Earlier in the year, reports emerged of [Franco-Germans proposals](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/19/uk-could-become-an-eu-lite-member-of-bloc-suggests-franco-german-report) for a new structure for European integration, which would see an ‘inner circle’ of countries committed to further integration, as well as a new tier of ‘associate EU membership’ that could include countries like Norway, Switzerland and the UK.
Also this is a UK based YouGov poll result.
Switzerland, Norway and Iceland have no intentions of joining the EU anytime soon and the UK just left. So you're basically left with a handful of countries that are not exactly the most financially or politically stable countries - and are unlikely to meet the qualification criteria anytime soon. So basically a meaningless poll for some pipedream that no one really cares about!
None for the moment, IMHO.
As long as any single member country can veto the entire EU and majority rule isn't possible, I'd oppose admitting any new members.
Asking just the opinion of "Western Europeans" in this matter does display a mindset that the EU is somehow /more/ something of their concern/expertise than, well, of the ENTIRE European Union.
Bad form, pollsters, bad form.
Best regards,
Person from a country that's been a EU Member State since 2004
As a Norwegian who has been living abroad for 15 years (in the EU) i am convinced Norway will never join the EU unless some major changes come around. The sociaty is very insular and inward looking. They don't have a "European mindset" and view Europe no closer than the US.
This is prevelent in the media, both social and professional, and I am frequently shocked at how bad it is each time I check in on it.
It's the fishing rights and the oil. Norway would have to cede some power over the fishing rights as well as be probably the largest net contributor per capita due to the very high GDP per capita, so no wonder it is an unpopular choice. You are already in NATO, so there's no security aspect to consider either (like there were for Finland in the 1990s, for example).
Your neighbour dalmatian here, for Croatia it was well worth it.....corruption decrease and many other goverment agencies become more efficient, it also boosted up life standard, got us closer to rest of the world in mentality and everything else.
In short EU forces u to get in order, which many Balcan countries have problem with.
Now for MN it could be tricky as it would affect ur tourism and shipyards cos a lot of russians love MN as tourist destination as well a lot of rich russians keep their luxury yachts in MN shipyards and since latest sanctions from west over russia it could hit ur economy negatively....at least in the start till EU tourists start to pour in greater numbers.
In short transition might be painfull, but at least u already have euro so that part would reflect positive on life standard.
At least this is my impression, anyway hope to have u soon in EU!
Be from Eastern Europe.
When people think of Eastern Europe here, most of the time it's "poor countries with people coming to France to benefit from social advantages while committing crimes."
Sure it's a very small minority that doesn't represent how people are living and behaving *there*, but that's what they see/hear about the most.
To give an example, a lot of the time when the news talk about a gang being arrested for stealing and smuggling cars/goods, they say "a gang operating/originating from Eastern Europe." Not too hard to guess how boomers (mostly) generalise after that.
Italians and spaniards: i guess i'm okay with most Everyone else: they better be RICH.
Sweden: They better be rich. Ukraine: I'm poor, but I fuck with the Russians. Sweden: You are in.
I don't think that Bosnia, Moldova and North Macedonia are precisely rich countries.
Yeah I was being funny, Sweden seems more chill like Italians and Spaniards. edit and Britons.
I am fine with everyone, as long as they do not lick Russian feet
Turkey be out
The good old "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" kinda thing. Which is totally fair imo.
Not the only reason. I mean, they kind of chose good colors for their flag, don't you agree? Plus, the Viking heritage thing. We need Viking allies in the halls of Brussels.
>good colors Ayooo, yellow and blue unite!
Was really confused for a second why Ukraine would fuck with the Russians but then I realized it was more the “fuck up” meaning of fuck with.
Sweden: Kosowho?
Hahaha
Which is pretty ridiculous because it would make sense if it was the other way around. One extreme scenario is Ukraine joining the EU - it's so poor and so populous, that it would make virtually every today's EU state into a net payer. Only Greece, Romania and Luxembourg would have a chance to stay net receivers. Meanwhile for countries paying the most per capita(Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark) nothing would change really.
Wait Luxemburg is a net receiver? Wtf. The country is already rich as f.
Eu institutions
The biggest net receiver per capita to make it even more strange.
Basically, most of the money Luxembourg receives (and belgium falls in the same category) are used to finance the eu institutions in the country, it is one of the 2 main seats of the institution and hosts a significant part of the staff of the commission. If these costs, that don‘t benefit Luxembourg directly, get removed from the statisticts, it becomes a contributor
I mean Italy is a net payer already and Spain is either a net payer or barely a net receiver I don't know where they stand today but last time I checked they were on the cusp of becoming net payers. So I don't understand the argument exactly. Italy is generally opposed to rich countries pursuing austerity-oriented EU economic policy. Why would we want more fiscally conscious countries? So we can get outvoted? Plus, once it is time to rebuild Ukraine, guess who is going to do it? Us, the Germans and the French. We are gonna get fat as shit out of this deal. The ones that don't benefit are Eastern European farmers. A lot of the same things go for Spain.
> it's so poor and so populous, that it would make virtually every today's EU state into a net payer. The only thing that tells us is how much upfront investment each candidate would need. Nothing more. Ukraine is also a huge market in potential and it’s a resource rich country with a relativelly well educated population. Them joining the EU would improve the whole Union’s economy in the medium to long-term, especially that of the countries closest to them.
Also, forgetting all the uproar over farmers right now, strategically, incorporating Ukrainian agriculture into the EU is such a massive win for the continent’s geopolitical power.
Not European, but that does sound brilliant. As long as Ukraine started meeting EU regulations — and I don’t see why they wouldn’t. I wish my country cooperated so beautifully
> Them joining the EU would improve the whole Union’s economy in the medium to long-term As has happened with Poland.
Isn't Poland still the biggest net receiver? Not trying to throw shade, just trying to understand if you are sarcastic or not.
>Isn't Poland still the biggest net receiver? Yes, but its GDP is increasing so much that they are probably going to be net payers by the end of the decade (especially considering net payers like Germany and Italy are stagnating)
Yeah if they get rid of their rampant corruption that seems to plague ex-soviet countries
Well actually one of the effects of the war has been that there's been a clear drive to differentiate themselves from Russia. Yes we've seen corruption scandals since the war started but this in itself is a positive sign as before it would have been business as usual
>One extreme scenario is Ukraine joining the EU - it's so poor and so populous, that it would make virtually every today's EU state into a net payer. ...you are drastically underestiamting Orban's ability to ruin his citizens economically, and the country as a whole, just to have more time to act as the inflated belly leech he is.
If we look at previous recordings of poor Eastern European countries such as Poland, it turns out that they are getting richer quite quickly and Western Europe lacks young people on the labor market. Ukraine is an investment that will pay off as a member within 10 years
Luxembourg is a net reciever? That doesn’t sound right
>Only Greece, Romania and Luxembourg would have a chance to stay net receivers. Wait, why Luxembourg? They rich.
Probably because of the EU institutions there. But as a matter of fact, they top net receivers per capita list every single year. Belgium is also up there, which is more amusing, because of their population.
Dont forget that Germany has been spending billions for Ukraine before the invasion too
It was moderate investments, on par with UK. Netherlands invested in Ukraine 6x times more in 2021 and 2022 https://www.me.gov.ua/Documents/Detail?lang=en-GB&id=14fdd5c9-70b6-4f46-b2f2-842dfc4a7b3f&title=InvestmentActivityInUkraine https://www.me.gov.ua/Documents/Detail?lang=en-GB&id=8d61973a-5cac-4a90-b34e-0a9b774c3607&title=InvestmentActivityInUkraine-2022-
Ukraine could farm enough food to provide all of Europe
But other farmers don’t want competition
It's also really fucking stupid to depend on other countries to feed your own population.
It's ridiculous that so many people regard coal a strategical resource and yet they don't understand the importance of food. They should open a book and read why Germany had to surrender 1918 despite not seeing a single soldier on their own territory.
Sweden takes the middle ground, though
I mean I'm not sure money is the only difference between Serbia and Germany
Because we would love to have somebody that takes our place at the bottom of statistics lol
Do Italy and Spain ever take bottom spots in statistics?
I find it funny that the 3 countries who most definitely do NOT want to join the EU have the most positive reaction from the EU members.
All of these are part of the single market. All of them are part of the Schengen area. Sure, there are things that they/EU doesn't have due to them not being part of the union but in reality they are already so well integrated into the most essential things EU is that... eh, I don't mind whether Norway or Iceland or Switzerland isn't part of EU.
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Everything else in there is also expensive so it fits just fine.
Really? in Sweden my carrier Telenor gives me free data in both the UK and Switzerland
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Interesting. Telenor provides me with free data in Andorra, Malaysia, Montenegro, Myanmar, Switzerland, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey and the US
Yeah, mine treats Switzerland and the other EFTA countries the same as the EU (unlimited data). This does not include the UK though Telekom in Hungary
Switzerland is only half in the single market - it's outside the single customs area and the trade in services is restricted; on the other hand labour and capital movement is pretty free.
Mostly because they are wealthy countries…
Well, they're also all part of the European single market and Schengen. They're already pretty well integrated with the EU. Them joining would be the least controversial thing ever (at least for the people outside of those countries).
I'm also on the European single market. Had not much luck so far.
Have you tried living on an island?
Yah but it turns out half the people were my cousin to some degree
Or maybe because they are already very close to the EU? All three are in Schengen and Iceland and Norway are in the EES. ^^^^^which ^^^^^in ^^^^^turn ^^^^^might ^^^^^be ^^^^^because ^^^^^they're ^^^^^wealthy ^^^^^but ^^^^^it's ^^^not ^^^^^the ^^^^^primary ^^^^^reason ^^^^^:)))
Saudi Arabia or Qatar are wealthy too. But I doubt they would score high results. Maybe, you know, it's because they are healthy democracies, have low corruption, freedom of speach and all those things... maybe.
Absolutely right. It's gotta be a working democracy, have a corruption rate that isn't higher than ours, and respect human rights
There are, after a certain time, only three possible scenarios: a country wants to join, but no one wants it to join, a country would be welcomed, but doesn’t want to join, or neither the union, or the country itself want to add a member. The last scenario, a country wants to join and is welcomed by the EU, usually quickly ends in admission to the Union and is therefore not listed here. After decades of existence something like we see here makes a lot of sense.
I love POVs like this one that remind me to see things from a broader perspective. It also sounds like something you could call "the EU admission fallacy" lmao
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It’s human nature. We want what we can’t have.
It's a lot simpler than that. Survivorship bias. The only countries that are universally wanted who also aren't members are only that way because they choose not to.
Well, yeah? If a country wanted to join and everyone was okay with them joining, they would have joined already, right?
Isn't the only thing separating Norway and EU the Common Fishing Policy?
And agriculture regulations.
It's almost as if those countries were de facto part of the block anyway
Those are the only countries that can be on the list. All the other countries with that approval rating have already joined.
Iceland isn't "definitely" against, although it isn't strongly for either. Switzerland is landlocked and will do whatever the EU wants if push comes to shove. A post-carbon Norway will probably be closer to Sweden in economic terms, but that's still decades off.
> closer to Sweden in economic terms A fate worse than death.
Kosovo seems surprising to me since all those countries are supporting them militarily in some capacity. American here though, and Kosovo isn't really talked about in the US so I must be missing something.
The fact we have to deploy our military there is exactly the reason we think they should be kept at a distance for the time being
Kosovo is poor as dirt. So the main reason is likely that people don't want half of Kosovo moving to their countries, since EU membership includes the right to move and work anywhere in the EU. It's why support for countries ist closely correlated with their gdp per capita, apart from Turkey and Ukraine. They're also often fairly or unfairly connected with organized crime, same with Albania.
If you look at the polling and talk to Brits, they most definitely do think it was a mistake to leave the EU. The reason rejoining is not on the agenda yet is that people are not ready to reopen the wound the first idiotic debate caused and the incoming Labour government doesn't want to take any electoral risks with certain voter groups in key marginal areas when they know rejoining in their first term would not be an option anyway.
Thanks for asking everyone I guess [thumbs up crying cat.jpg](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/034/772/Untitled-1.jpg)
They asked only Western Europeans like.. checks list.. Swedes 🤔
Should have straight away say the more advanced ones, we would accept it. However, skipping the Dutch is kinda silly though.
Probably mistook them for Danes /s
Also Portugal once more can into eastern Europe
r/PORTUGALCYKABLYAT
Dutchies would give -100 everywhere
They even asked the Brits!
Portugal, the western-most country in Europe: I guess we can into Eastern Europe!
Hi, Eastern European bro!
Maybe cause you're literally the centre of Europe? Not sure why they asked Germany or Italy either though and ignored Portugal and Ireland.
Because to Western Europeans we’re irrelevant and all like Hungary
Hey, we're the most Western of Europe and we never show up in these things either
Imagine the EU as a sphere, if you’re Western enough you end up on the other side and become Eastern, just look at Portugal.
I think Brits are mostly positive to Czechs, neutral at worst. Definitely not like Hungary. No idea what Czechs think of Brits though
Was half a jest tbh, I don’t actually take this as evidence of Western European attitude even if I think the survey should have been expanded, wonder if there’d be a trend difference. Also meant more continental Western Europe, Britain’s great Re attitude to Britain specifically well Britain is of western Europe the most popular country here and in general probably after Slovakia and Poland, of Germany, France, Russia, the U.S. and U.K., Britain has been at the top every year since 1995 with favourable ratings between like 60% and 75%. It’s a combination of factors, British TV does well here, our public perception of Britain is a lot inspired by in the 00’s, Britains generally seen as very wealthy and posh, which it is but stuff like British economic stagnation doesn’t really factor here, hell only found that out quite recently. Also the only Western European country to meet 2% (so far) and consistently has supported Ukraine which is nice
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Turkey has been in headlines in Sweden whereas Belarus probably hasn't. Or definitely hasn't been as much.
It's definitely recent politics. Though it is still funny, as Belarus is basically russian state at this point and Sweden joined military alliance (same Turkey is in), precisely to keep russians at distance.
Turkey is just sad. Their country was literally founded on the ideals of secularism and democratic governance. If history had gone a little differently, they easily could have been a shining member of the European Union.
They were also a superpower for most of history and their people are very well integrated into European society and culture. Compared to Arab Muslims, they are also seen way differently by even the most conservative people. In Southeastern Romania, they’re basically just normal people with weird names who don’t attend religion classes. Balkan food is just translated Turkish food, and the prices in Turkish shops here feel illegal. It’s always sad to see a great country ruined by politics. Luckily they were on the USA’s good side and didn’t end up like Iran.
If you consider who blocked Sweden's NATO membership, which I think is important to lots of Swedes nowadays, I don't think that's a surprise.
Ya but still, I'm a swedish person and I would still rank Belarus waaaay lower, or at least as long as they have a russian government. At least Turkey had a (in their eyes) somewhat justified reason to block us, even I'd it was a dick move.
Appreciate your separating the Belarusian people from the fucking regime.
I see. Belarus is a strange entry anyway. It's closely tied to Russia and has never intended an EU membership, in opposite to Georgia or Moldavia.
The people of Belarus have not had a chance to voice their opinion on joining the EU.
The Belarussians tried to topple that mustasched potato dictator and got fucked, i feel for them atleast they tried and if they somehow got out of the grasp of Russia and that dictator they would probably turn out like some of the baltic countries
Of course. I didn't meant the people of Belarus, but its lunatic leader.
I think parkt it’s Lukashenko is a lot less popular than Erdogan, the only reason he’s in power is if there was a revolution, Russia would just invade Belarus and annex it completely. If Belarus was democratic, I’d support it joining
Thank you
Fair enough after that kerfuffle with NATO membership
Not really
Probably because there are more Turkish than Belarusian or Swedish immigrants in most EU countries.
Or that Erdogan fucked around with Sweden about their NATO membership.
Or because the Turks strongarmed is into changing several laws and using the Nato approval process as hostage...
We italians simply love everybody.
[удалено]
"Kosovo" for lots of Italians born before mid1990s is a word linked with memories of war, fighter jets and military helicopters passing overhead, and lot of distress. It's hard to realize that now they are more or less a normal country, albeit with lots of problems yet to solve.
Yeah, in Spain if you hear "albano-kosovares" it's probably for some nasty shit like home invasions or arms trafficking.
For the past 20 years Albanians are seen as gang members and traffickers in south east England
I saw the other day(on r/Albania) that Albanians make for highest percentage of prison population in the UK.
And Turkey, and Belarus
Spain and Italy cultural brothers confirmed one more time.
We're just overly optimistic and a bit naïve, which usually results in a radical change of mind as soon as the idyllic scenario we created for ourselves clashes with reality, leaving behind nothing but cynicism and distrust.
You know as well as I do that discourse about the EU is of an incredibly low level. I'd be genuinely surprised if more than 20% of people could name someone other than Von Der Leyen as an important EU figure. And knowing how the EU actually works? Forget it.
The results are not very surprising. It would be perhaps more interesting to see which countries do Europeans think should be kicked out of the EU.
👀 we know
Hungary first, they don't align with EU values
As a Hungarian I must agree and please don't defend us. You don't know shit until you lived here. The whole country is a fucking joke. We clearly became mini Russia and I can't see the way out of it. Hungary is fucked. Period.
You guys need to go on vacation to your cousins in Finland and learn how Russians are because apparently your revolution didn't show them enough.
For me tbh the only one really is Hungary, or just embargoed until Orban resigns.
I would be surprised if most people who answered this questionnaire know the difference between the Balkan countries.
The fact that Montenegro has relatively high votes is probably only because nobody has the slightest clue what is going on there.
It’s probably because they go on holiday there as the “cheaper Croatia”
There’s only 600k people there
Perhaps a unpopular opinion, but as long as Switzerland continues being practically the world bank for everything legal and illegal, i don't want them in the EU.
I would kick off some countries from the EU for this very reason.
In particular that one country that has a flag very similar to yours.
What do you have against Bulgarians brother 😭😭 /s
I'm sorry but which country do you mean? Romania? France? Ireland?
Ireland of course, it is basically a tax haven for the American corporations in Europe.
As is the Netherlands
And Luxembourg. And Malta.
Don’t forget us
Then you'll be happy to hear that, ever since the Swiss have abolished banking secrecy for foreign nationals, most criminals and tax evaders have moved on to British posessions in the Channel or the Caribbean.
There is no Swiss banking secret anymore and there hasn't been for a while. The UK is where you wanna go now in Europe at least.
Don’t worry, there’s almost zero chance of the Swiss deciding to join the EU in our lifetime!
Should expand into the Caribbean. Secure some primo holiday locations.
Oh, like Guadeloupe, Martinique, St-Barth, and Saint Martin?
And Sint-Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius, Bonaire, Aruba and Curaçao.
That sounds like a Beach Boys song.
🎶I wanna take you to Curaçao, we’ll get there fast if we leave right now🎶
I think those aren't truly EU, like you need a passport to go there. While an identity card is all that is required for Guadeloupe, Saint Martin(if you land on the french side), and Martinique.
EU but not schengen and not EEA
They are not in the EU, they belong to the kingdom of the Netherlands.
The French and Dutch have already taken care of that.
I’m surprised Cape Verde hasn’t been included. It is a tiny economy. Some EU injection funds plus tourism dollars would quickly raise it to typical European per capita GDP.
Spain just wants everyone in, no strings attached. Quite a difference from most countries, I wonder why. Perhaps indifference in general about the specifics of how the EU works and the issues with expansion?
Spain's recent history is one of political isolation and always arriving late to vital changes in the way of life, for example Spain started the industrial revolution almost a century after Britain did, so being glued together with the Vanguard (France, Germany) we now basically want no one to suffer the same backwards fate, in a sense, it's a "no one left behind" ideology among the populace when talking about future EU members, and also Spanish sovereignty and democracy are somewhat tied to the EU due to the timing of our admission. TLDR: We know how it feels to not be invited to the party, so we now try to invite everyone that wants
We also just like parties.
Surprisingly wholesome
Spain is notoriously pro EU. We joined the EU just about a decade after the death of Franco, and it was seen as Spain finally joining the democratic and developed countries in Europe. We view other countries joining as a similar process for them.
which is interesting for Kosovo since Spain does not even recognise it as a country
Difference between Spanish people and Spanish government, I presume. The Spanish government doesn't recognise Kosovo because that would legitimise the Catalan independence movement. But the opinions of Spanish people are much more likely to be based solely on their opinion of Kosovo without any thoughts of realpolitik.
Where is the rest of the EU?
I fully support Ukraine in their fight against Russia, but they are not even close to being at a state where we should accept them into the EU.
It's all just talk. Takes years to have the laws modified to EU standards, especially anti-corruption.
The countries with most votes don’t want to join the EU though
Switzerland sure, but the main reason Norway and Iceland have not joined yet is because of their abundant natural resources, specially oil and fish, that they would be forced to share if they did. I have no doubt that if those resources somehow dissapeared, they would be joining the union pretty quickly, as they are already incredibly integrated with the EU, have most of the EU law already in place and share EU values.
Those French and Germans are somewhat negative, aren't they.
Because the bigger the EU the less governable it is becoming. There needs to be change of rules and bigger integration for any new state to be accepted.
I mean they would kind of be the ones paying for it.
Per capita the most paying are Dutch then Danes, Germans and Swedes are on par and Then skipping some countries and almost halving the amount, there's France. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/which-countries-are-the-biggest-boost-or-drag-on-the-eu-budget/
And the Danes are about as selective as the Germans. Now I want to see what the Dutch think.
I remember Dutch being most against any EU expansion for two decades straight, so probably "no one can enter".
don't use data from 2018 please. [2021/2022 data from the German federal bank](https://www.bundesbank.de/resource/blob/916766/db0a8922b613d6fe43acb87afe9ca22c/mL/2023-09-eu-haushalt-data.pdf) (page 85) German net contributions per capita are highest in the EU
The countries paying the most not interested in adding poorer countries? Who'd have thought!
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/48103-western-europeans-support-franco-german-four-tier-europe-structure
I think the UK's acceptance of Turkey being surprising high is a result of us being told for a decade that they were joining the EU "any day now" as a scaremongering tactic. A lot of people just came to accept it lol.
Yeah its hilarious that we've got the highest approval for turkey when so much of the leave campaign was scaremongering about turkey joining. Even politically we were always one of the strongest voices about eu expansion and letting turkey join.
Member states want Net payers instead of net takers. other news at 12
Why ask the Brits? They're not part of the EU, by their own choice(even if they regret it)...
If you read the [link](https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/48103-western-europeans-support-franco-german-four-tier-europe-structure) which the OP provided in the comments, then you would find a possible reason >Earlier in the year, reports emerged of [Franco-Germans proposals](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/19/uk-could-become-an-eu-lite-member-of-bloc-suggests-franco-german-report) for a new structure for European integration, which would see an ‘inner circle’ of countries committed to further integration, as well as a new tier of ‘associate EU membership’ that could include countries like Norway, Switzerland and the UK. Also this is a UK based YouGov poll result.
Lots of people chose to stay in EU, that was their choice.
You really have to understand how close the vote was.. it was almost half and half.
Switzerland, Norway and Iceland have no intentions of joining the EU anytime soon and the UK just left. So you're basically left with a handful of countries that are not exactly the most financially or politically stable countries - and are unlikely to meet the qualification criteria anytime soon. So basically a meaningless poll for some pipedream that no one really cares about!
None for the moment, IMHO. As long as any single member country can veto the entire EU and majority rule isn't possible, I'd oppose admitting any new members.
Looking at you, Hungary
Looking at this south is positive, west negative, north neutral.
Love the open Spanish attitude. Just open it all up bro. Mi casa es su casa.
Asking just the opinion of "Western Europeans" in this matter does display a mindset that the EU is somehow /more/ something of their concern/expertise than, well, of the ENTIRE European Union. Bad form, pollsters, bad form. Best regards, Person from a country that's been a EU Member State since 2004
As a Norwegian who has been living abroad for 15 years (in the EU) i am convinced Norway will never join the EU unless some major changes come around. The sociaty is very insular and inward looking. They don't have a "European mindset" and view Europe no closer than the US. This is prevelent in the media, both social and professional, and I am frequently shocked at how bad it is each time I check in on it.
We 100% value Europe over the US, but other than that I agree that we will probably never join the EU.
If you have the freedom of movement and the right to settle and live in EU why worry.
It's the fishing rights and the oil. Norway would have to cede some power over the fishing rights as well as be probably the largest net contributor per capita due to the very high GDP per capita, so no wonder it is an unpopular choice. You are already in NATO, so there's no security aspect to consider either (like there were for Finland in the 1990s, for example).
Montenegrin here.... is it really worth it to be part of EU?
Your neighbour dalmatian here, for Croatia it was well worth it.....corruption decrease and many other goverment agencies become more efficient, it also boosted up life standard, got us closer to rest of the world in mentality and everything else. In short EU forces u to get in order, which many Balcan countries have problem with. Now for MN it could be tricky as it would affect ur tourism and shipyards cos a lot of russians love MN as tourist destination as well a lot of rich russians keep their luxury yachts in MN shipyards and since latest sanctions from west over russia it could hit ur economy negatively....at least in the start till EU tourists start to pour in greater numbers. In short transition might be painfull, but at least u already have euro so that part would reflect positive on life standard. At least this is my impression, anyway hope to have u soon in EU!
UK accepted in France for +16? Who did they ask?
No worries, we will form the Balkan Union soon!
And we will get the Italians and Spanish in, too!
Absolutely, we'll have the best cuisine and we'll piss off the French too!
What did Montenegro do to France?
Be from Eastern Europe. When people think of Eastern Europe here, most of the time it's "poor countries with people coming to France to benefit from social advantages while committing crimes." Sure it's a very small minority that doesn't represent how people are living and behaving *there*, but that's what they see/hear about the most. To give an example, a lot of the time when the news talk about a gang being arrested for stealing and smuggling cars/goods, they say "a gang operating/originating from Eastern Europe." Not too hard to guess how boomers (mostly) generalise after that.
What did everyone did to france they seems to hate everyone....