Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] EU and other European countries<br/>
Date: Sep 30, 2002 @ 20:33<br/>
Author: Kevin Meynell (Kevin Meynell &lt;kevin@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-905441441">Jan,<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt;One example is that skin creams made for Central European market does not <br/>
&gt;fit for most light skin Norwegians. Anyway the EU regulations says how the <br/>
&gt;instructions should be written and where it should be sold. Norwegians are <br/>
&gt;blindly following up and thousands are getting skin damages.<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>Although I&#39;m not disputing your tale, many of these EU &#39;scarce&#39; stories are <br/>
actually the result of national governments implementing unpopular <br/>
legislation and then using the EU as a convenient scapegoat. In addition, <br/>
the EU is unable to initiate any law in any member state without the <br/>
consent of that member. Whilst compromise is usually possible between all <br/>
member states in the case of &#39;minor&#39; legislation, several states have (or <br/>
had) opted out of the likes of the Schengen Agreement, the ERM, and the <br/>
European Social Chapter.<br/>
<br/>
To give you a practical example, the EU has frequently been blamed in the <br/>
UK for forcing us to abandon imperial measures in favour of metric <br/>
measures. However, I&#39;ve never been able to find any EU legislation that <br/>
actually compels the abolition of the imperial system, and even if this <br/>
exists, the UK government would have had to consent to this. Furthermore, <br/>
why is it that I can still go to certain EU countries and still buy things <br/>
(such as plumbing fittings) in imperial sizes? The answer I suspect lies on <br/>
the UK government&#39;s own website which states that a complete transition to <br/>
metric has been government policy since 1971 (before we even joined the EEC).<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt;My personal opintion is that the EU will need to change after some time. <br/>
&gt;Europe is consisting from a too big mixture of nations with different <br/>
&gt;understanding on things.<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>I would agree with you. I think it will ultimately be impossible to find <br/>
common consensus when the EU expands beyond its current size. However, we <br/>
shouldn&#39;t forget that the USA actually started as a loose collection of <br/>
largely squabbling states, but did eventually forge itself into a single <br/>
nation (albeit one with a lot of devolved power).<br/>
<br/>
Regards,<br/>
<br/>
Kevin Meynell</div>