foxdemon wrote:The Catalan rebels want their own state but only as a province in the greater pan European Empire. So they are pro EU Imperialist.
The trouble with the EU haters is that they can never make up their mind. One day the EU is about to collapse of its own accord and the next it's a threatening empire. You can't have it both ways.
We have to fight the empires that are and not the empires you think might appear in some distant future. The empire that is is the Anglo empire. Period. The chances that 30 odd countries, each jealous of its sovereignty, should form an empire with a single decision making center are less than the chances of a snowball in hell, even if in a far distant future we were to arrive at a full federation
The EU was always going to be a difficult project.
Nobody said that it would be easy for so many countries to peacefully cooperate, but with the Brits out off the way, most expect the sailing to be a lot easier, because, unlike the arrogant British, we have learned to live together.
foxdemon wrote:What you have at present is a Franco-German core which everything else hangs off. Both of those nations have shown they are happy to assert their own interests over the rest of Europe. So if the EU is going to succeed in the end, I think there are a number of people in both Paris and Berlin who need to acquire a taste for humble pie.
The British have played at their "divide and rule game" for so long, that it's no longer having any effect. You ought to think of another strategy to sow trouble. The Anglophone Media is still trying to divide the EU by trying to incite resentment in one country against another country, with Germany being the easiest target. However, many in Europe are urging Germany and France to take a stronger role in the EU because without them, nothing will move. But that is of course exactly what you want to achieve. Compared to the Brits, who were trouble from the start, the Germans have been good team-players, without which the EU would not exist.
But since you rely on the Anglophone media for information, I guess your misconceptions about Europe are only natural.
The UK with its nuclear force, seat in the security council and global trade network, can still pretend at being a global player. But for most small and medium-sized countries, who have none of these assets, the EU is even more important than it is for big countries like Germany or France. And despite all your efforts at sowing trouble, people on the continent who have not been brainwashed by the Anglophone media understand this perfectly well. Your efforts will be in vain.
Potemkin wrote:This is why the EU elite have been so careful not to interfere, or even be seen to be interfering, in the internal constitutional affairs of its member nation-states.
The Commission represents the nation states in the EU. To expect the Commission to promote the dismemberment of the nation state is like expecting the unions to fight against the worker on behalf of the employers.
That doesn't mean the EU is against independence movements. In fact, the principle of subsidiarity is widely accepted in the EU. In other words, decisions should be made a lower level: commune, region, state, whenever possible. This makes it possible to shift power from the national to the regional level. And since EU members no longer have to engage in national competition to beat the neighboring state, the size and power of nation states becomes less important. People can live just as happily and safely in small EU members as in big ones. It's just that the Commission is the wrong organ to promote regional independence. If the independence movements were serious, they would lobby the EP, or the EU Committee of the Regions to give flesh to a "Europe of the Regions."
Anyways, there can be no doubt that Catalonia and Scotland would be entitled to EU membership, just like every other European democratic state that fulfills membership criteria. But they have to become independent states first.