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Do you think there will be a Deal or No Deal?


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Most tourists are absolute shite, but those that live abroad make the effort from what I've seen/heard.

How are the french in the UK, we are generally terrible with foreign languages and try to live together?
 
How are the french in the UK, we are generally terrible with foreign languages and try to live together?

I was in Dublin with a work group last night with a very multicultural group, four of the french sat next to me and marginalised me. They annexed me from the group, I was quite pissed off about it.
 
And to Wolfman....

Perhaps you're right about those three countries not joining too soon, but I was trying to explain the poblems of the three countries who most want to join and will probably be the next ones to join but the problems that that would bring.

The EU directly caused the current problems in the Ukraine by openly encouraging Ukraine to turn its back on Russia and join the EU while forgetting and/or ignoring and/or dimissing ( take your pick ) the fact that the is a large minority of ethnic and Russian speaking Ukranians whose allegience and culture and language is Russian. And is why these ethnic Russians then ' invited ' Putin imto their region in South East Ukraine to preclude them from any future EU membership.

Turkey desperately wants to convert its current EU ' Preferred Trading Partner ' and membership of the Customs Union status into full membership. And arch EU supporter Cameron several times said he would support any application for Turkey to join the EU. Strange that the EU is happy to provide the ' Preferred Trading Partner ' status and membership of the Customs Union on Turkey but doesn't seem to want to give these to the UK after BREXIT, no ?

And Morocco ? Well, the EU has already given Morocco almost € 1.5 billion ( I'll repeat that - € 1.5 billion ) specifically to help Morocco prepare for EU membership. So why give so much money if a membership
invitation isn't already prepared and is just waiting to be posted ?

The rest of your thoughts I totally agree with. Although I'll add that the same concerns must exist in EU land that they can't afford to be cut off from the world's fifth / sixth larget economy either....

A country can only join europe if every single country agrees for it to join. With changes to the eu budget being imminent i doubt that countries are in a mood to allow countries in

Also all 3 are at the frontier of the immigration wave, 2 of whom are muslim. Allowing turkey or morocco in will give fuel to le pen and co to be come more popular. Ukraine will be a declaration of war with russia something the eu wont want for obvious reasons.

There is no doubt that brexit will hurt the eu. But i repeat, can a country live without some sort of preferential deal with the very continemt its part of?
 
Most tourists are absolute shite, but those that live abroad make the effort from what I've seen/heard.

The younger ones make the effort more but in my experience, it's quite embarrassing. Countless times I've been told it makes a change for an "anglais" to be able to speak french. I know some people have lived here over 20 years and can barely get past "Bonjour" and "merci"
 
Errr....I don't think anyone can 'allow' you to default on your debts - when you default, it's because you can't afford to pay or don't want to pay and nothing to do with whether you've been 'allowed' to or not. But it happens - Argentina does it every 15 years or so because it's the only way to survive and start over when your debts are simply to big to ever be able to pay off. In the case of Greece, it's as I said before - it's only the smoke and mirrors of a complicit ECB which can't afford to allow Greece to default becasue the whole Eurozone and the EU would then collapse, so it keeps lending and pretending.....

Agreed other countries would love to be in the EU and will soon be allowed to join - like Ukraine, Turkey and Morocco.

Problem is that Ukraine is politically a nuclear bomb; Turkey has been hovering on the verge of civil war for the past 20-odd years; and letting Morocco join is opening the door for another 10+ million economic immigrants into France and Benelux.

I reckon letting those three in would be a problem too far for even German politicos to resolve.

But your comments about rebates is a bit misguided - the UK is a NET contributor to the EU, one of the very few NET contributors, so in fact the rebates are only the EU giving back to the UK some of the UK's own money.

Tell you what - you send me £10 every week. I'll send you back £5 every week, although I'll keep the other £5 and I'll spend a couple of pounds on myself and give the rest to my neighbour, who you don't know, but really needs your money to help him build a new extension on his house and then try to convince yourself that you've got a good deal. Both me and my neighbour would appreciate your generosity but will get really nasty with you if you decide you don't like this arrangement and decide to stop paying us.

However you want to quibble about terminology the EU won't allow Greece and Italy to default, not in any real "We are never paying our debt back" type affair possibly barring some cataclysmic world financial crisis. That doesn't mean some of it won't get written off at some point. The bottom line is that your worst case scenario is incredibly unlikely to happen.

And ignoring your Thatcheresk economics for toddlers scenario, the UK had the best deal in the UK. Of course we were a slight net contributor and like other net contributors this is a very small price to pay for access to the free market and free movement of labor. EU migrants in the UK give us a net benefit of a couple of billion a year for starters.

And adding the rest of the Balkan states would be the next logical steps. Not letting in the problematic countries that you mention. And the EU is about stability and spreading and cementing liberal democracy for the whole region - again a very small price t pay. Access to the single market alone is worth far more.
 
I was in Dublin with a work group last night with a very multicultural group, four of the french sat next to me and marginalised me. They annexed me from the group, I was quite pissed off about it.

Yeah, that's us.:lol:

French will never speak anything else than french if they are more than three.
 
The younger ones make the effort more but in my experience, it's quite embarrassing. Countless times I've been told it makes a change for an "anglais" to be able to speak french. I know some people have lived here over 20 years and can barely get past "Bonjour" and "merci"


Sad but true, glad we can agree on something lol.
 
Doubt any Muslim-majority country will ever be allowed in the EU, including Albania and Bosnia.
 
Doubt any Muslim-majority country will ever be allowed in the EU, including Albania and Bosnia.

Yup, you are probably right. It's the one hurdle that Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia will face.
 
How are the french in the UK, we are generally terrible with foreign languages and try to live together?

Our daughter used to live in Brook Green, near Hammersmith in West London. It has more French nationals living there than almost anywhere else in the UK, complete with French schools, etc.

Whenever we went there, we felt as though we were in one of the better areas of Paris - not exactly the 16th or 17th, but you know what I mean.

So yes, they do tend to stick together in the UK ( and which, I suppose, is why our daughter was living there ) but contrary to your modesty, every French national I came across spoke excellent English.

Edited to add - And with that impossible-to-resist sexy French accent.
 
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Yup, you are probably right. It's the one hurdle that Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia will face.

Yeah I forgot Kosovo, in any case it's pretty much an American colony right now with few signs of that changing anytime soon.
 
Read again....

Political cooperation

In 2006 EU commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner declared that "we [EU] already have a very, very close relationship with Morocco, and we're studying giving them even more advanced status."[12]

In 2008, Morocco was the first country in the region to be granted advanced status, which makes it a pioneer in the European Neighbourhood Policy. The agreement constitutes a "roadmap" which widens the sphere of EU-Morocco bilateral relations by setting out new objectives in three main areas: closer political relations, with the holding of a periodic EU-Morocco summit and the establishment of consultation mechanisms at ministerial level; integration of the single market on the basis of gradual adoption of the Community acquis and sectoral cooperation; and a focus on the human dimension.

The first EU-Morocco summit was held March 7, 2010. It was the first in its kind between the EU and an Arab or African country.[13] Abbas El Fassi, Van Rompuy and Barroso presented to the press the results of the summit, commending the event which heralds a new era in the privileged and strategic partnership. The Granada summit between the European Union and Morocco has concluded with a positive assessment of the development of their relations and with the commitment to build on their political, economic and social aspect, as well as to begin a process of reflection on their future ‘contractual’ form. On bilateral partnership, the joint declaration sets concrete measures to consolidate achievements and an operational agenda for the future, as part of the advanced status which specifies the relation between Morocco and the EU. The summit also addressed the state of EU-Morocco relations and future developments, as well as other subjects of common interest such as the Legal status of Western Sahara, the situation in the Maghreb and the Sahel, and the Union for the Mediterranean.

European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle visited Morocco in January 2012. He said he was very pleased with the reform developments and the country is going in the right direction, but some improvements still need to be made and the Nation are currently working on it.

I did read the Wiki, so there was no need for a repost. I still don't see how the are preparing Morocco for EU membership
 
Doubt any Muslim-majority country will ever be allowed in the EU, including Albania and Bosnia.

What makes me laugh about Turkey's case is that everyone's always talking about it like Turkey actually wants to be a part of the EU, whereas the reality is that Turkish people are incredibly apathetic about the idea. Since what you've said it more than likely true, and what I've said certainly is, it's pretty irritating to constantly see uninformed opinions about Turkey's position on the EU.
 
Not sure the point, the poles seem to have very good english.
I was just saying I've seen the same criticism you mentioned aimed at people from within the EU.

In my experience the light to heavy xenophobia towards immigrates over not speaking the native language or not having the native accent has almost nothing to do with practicality, it has more to do with a simply a dislike of people be different.
 
Read again....

Political cooperation

In 2006 EU commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner declared that "we [EU] already have a very, very close relationship with Morocco, and we're studying giving them even more advanced status."[12]

In 2008, Morocco was the first country in the region to be granted advanced status, which makes it a pioneer in the European Neighbourhood Policy. The agreement constitutes a "roadmap" which widens the sphere of EU-Morocco bilateral relations by setting out new objectives in three main areas: closer political relations, with the holding of a periodic EU-Morocco summit and the establishment of consultation mechanisms at ministerial level; integration of the single market on the basis of gradual adoption of the Community acquis and sectoral cooperation; and a focus on the human dimension.

The first EU-Morocco summit was held March 7, 2010. It was the first in its kind between the EU and an Arab or African country.[13] Abbas El Fassi, Van Rompuy and Barroso presented to the press the results of the summit, commending the event which heralds a new era in the privileged and strategic partnership. The Granada summit between the European Union and Morocco has concluded with a positive assessment of the development of their relations and with the commitment to build on their political, economic and social aspect, as well as to begin a process of reflection on their future ‘contractual’ form. On bilateral partnership, the joint declaration sets concrete measures to consolidate achievements and an operational agenda for the future, as part of the advanced status which specifies the relation between Morocco and the EU. The summit also addressed the state of EU-Morocco relations and future developments, as well as other subjects of common interest such as the Legal status of Western Sahara, the situation in the Maghreb and the Sahel, and the Union for the Mediterranean.

European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle visited Morocco in January 2012. He said he was very pleased with the reform developments and the country is going in the right direction, but some improvements still need to be made and the Nation are currently working on it.

You have severe problems understanding basic political procedures. Nothing there indicates any chance for Morroco to join the EU.

See people, that's why I'm against direct democracy
 
You have severe problems understanding basic political procedures. Nothing there indicates any chance for Morroco to join the EU.

See people, that's why I'm against direct democracy


You're really quite insulting, aren't you ? Two replies, four personal insults.

You probably think Suarez isn't a cheat, either....Anyway,

' integration of the single market on the basis of gradual adoption of the Community acquis and sectoral cooperation '

Definition of Community Acquis -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquis_communautaire

So....

You're suggesting that the €1.5 billion wasn't for integration of the single market on the basis of gradual adoption of the Community acquis but that the EU gave Morocco €1.5 billion because it found a bit of spare cash lying in the bottom of a draw of someone's desk in Brussels and they didn't need the cash themselves ?

Or are you suggesting that the € 1.5 billion was a sweetener to STOP Morocco from applying for EU membership....
 
You're really quite insulting, aren't you ? Two replies, four personal insults.

You probably think Suarez isn't a cheat, either....Anyway,

' integration of the single market on the basis of gradual adoption of the Community acquis and sectoral cooperation '

Definition of Community Acquis -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquis_communautaire

So....

You're suggesting that the €1.5 billion wasn't for integration of the single market on the basis of gradual adoption of the Community acquis but that the EU gave Morocco €1.5 billion because it found a bit of spare cash lying in the bottom of a draw of someone's desk in Brussels and they didn't need the cash themselves ?

Or are you suggesting that the € 1.5 billion was a sweetener to STOP Morocco from applying for EU membership....

Countries have the ability to veto the entry of others; the chances of nations like Morocco and Turkey getting in are between extremely slim and non-existent.
 
FENNER....

Interesting link here -

https://www.quora.com/Does-Turkey-want-to-join-the-EU-Why

If I understand it correctly, it seems Turkey has about the same 50/50 split over joining the EU as the UK has about staying in the EU - ie, Big Business says yes, the average man-in-the-street says no....

All you really need to do is read the first two answers. The second one in particular, submitted back in late 2014, is a good summary of Turkish attitudes on EU membership that still exist today, probably more so. Essentially, the EU's a bit full of itself and Turkey isn't having it.
 
You're really quite insulting, aren't you ? Two replies, four personal insults.

You probably think Suarez isn't a cheat, either....Anyway,

' integration of the single market on the basis of gradual adoption of the Community acquis and sectoral cooperation '

Definition of Community Acquis -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquis_communautaire

So....

You're suggesting that the €1.5 billion wasn't for integration of the single market on the basis of gradual adoption of the Community acquis but that the EU gave Morocco €1.5 billion because it found a bit of spare cash lying in the bottom of a draw of someone's desk in Brussels and they didn't need the cash themselves ?

Or are you suggesting that the € 1.5 billion was a sweetener to STOP Morocco from applying for EU membership....

That's more or less making Morocco a second Turkey, who are not getting into the EU.
 
I'd never even heard about Morocco potentially joining the EU until I saw it on here. Sounds like the typical scaremongering bollocks.
 
I'd never even heard about Morocco potentially joining the EU until I saw it on here. Sounds like the typical scaremongering bollocks.

They have no chance, I know that when they tried to convince EU members that it was an idea, they have been politely told that they were africans. The EU is willing to have a strong relationship with African nations but there will be no membership.
 
If the idea picked up enough momentum, you'd still see stupid headlines like "Morrocout!" and "Marakeshing in"

I still remember the headline about 20 million Turkish people being ready to flood into the UK after becoming an EU member. I don't know whether to find it offensive or amusing.
 
They have no chance, I know that when they tried to convince EU members that it was an idea, they have been politely told that they were africans. The EU is willing to have a strong relationship with African nations but there will be no membership.

As the UK is going to become a third World country after BREXIT ( well, according to a lot of posters on here and lots of the EU's and UK's own politicians ) do you think the EU will take pity on the them and work to develop a similar ' strong relationship ' with the UK ?

Nope....Thought not....
 
As the UK is going to become a third World country after BREXIT ( well, according to a lot of posters on here and lots of the EU's and UK's own politicians ) do you think the EU will take pity on the them and work to develop a similar ' strong relationship ' with the UK ?

Nope....Thought not....

You're just trying to dodge the original issue now, namely that Morocco and Turkey aren't going to be joining the EU, and the suggestion they will is inaccurate.
 
As the UK is going to become a third World country after BREXIT ( well, according to a lot of posters on here and lots of the EU's and UK's own politicians ) do you think the EU will take pity on the them and work to develop a similar ' strong relationship ' with the UK ?

Nope....Thought not....

I said from start that I don't understand the idea of Brexit and I also don't believe that Armageddon is the next step for the UK. The EU and UK will find a way to make both richer and will have a special bond.
 
I speak English wherever i go and whoever i talk to if i can get away with it, i am comfortable with that.

You live in Holland though and day to day life should be more simple for you than most places in Europe if you don't speak the language. If you are conversing with commercial or business people there's a good chance they will speak English in many more countries.

Used to do a lot of business in Holland and always spoke English when I went there on business - could understand a bit of Dutch with my fading knowledge of German