What has the EU ever done for you?

[jasjas1973]

With all this doom and gloom, i thought i'd start something a little positive...
For me its travel and food.

I can travel around europe as easily as i can the UK, we've EHIC, one currency, i ve worked in Sweden and found love! picked fruit in france, worked in a bicycle shop in Mallorca.
I remember what a PIA it was pre EU, open skies flights, no tunnel, loads of different currencies and border checks, green cards, travel insurance and before anyone says it - i'm not middle class by any means, i left school at 16 and my mum was on benefits.

Then there is food, in the 70s Spagbol was considered adventurous cooking, now look at what we can find in our shops plus a load of euro cooking programs.

Oh and then there is trade, my friend can export to 17 EU countries from Plymouth as easily as he can to Luton or Hull & trade disputes are easily settled.

We've also had a load of worker rights regulations, not least the Working time directive, which gives many a max 48 hr week, many employers inc mine would happily see their work do far more.

AIBU ?

The defeat of Nazi Germany, NATO and the UN have been the main reasons for peace over the past 80 years, not the EU.

The UK was a world leader in employment rights, long before the EU and many European countries.

So many misconceptions on this thread!

Peace
Prosperity
Services that drive our economy
Ease of travel and trade
Freedom to live and work elsewhere

On the downside we have

High levels of immigration
Wages held down in certain sectors by staff willing to work for low pay
Less self determination

I voted remain and would do again in a heartbeat. The alternative is a decline in living standards.

“The UK was a world leader in employment rights, long before the EU and many European countries.”

How come there was such resistance to the working time directive the ?

Allowed me to live in France for a year as a teaching assistant.
Allowed some of my closest friends to make their home here.
Allowed me to do my job. I look after the export sales and we have about 12 customers in the EU. We can be competitive because we can ship to any of those 27 other countries as easily as we can trade with a shop in Brighton. If we leave with no deal, we’ll lose that business overnight as neither our customers nor us can cover the extra costs of the tariffs in our margins.

Met the love of my life on a study year abroad
He was able to move to the UK and work so we could start our lives together
He worked on an important scientific research project, partly funded by the EU
After a few years, we were then able to move back abroad together as easily as jumping on a plane
Got identity documents and healthcare straight away
Was able to get a job and earn money easily
Able to travel back to see friends and family often and hassle-free/cheaply
We were both able to build successful careers, impossible without the EU trade laws or their investment
We now have two kids and own a house abroad, no idea what kind of obstacles we avoided with that!

I have no idea who I would be without the EU.

Women's Rights.
Children's Rights.
Anti Racism.
European Capital of Culture Status for Glasgow and Liverpool.
Peace.
Freedom to work, live, love in 28 countries.
Home.

Matter of opinion Cheeserton...from where I sit just outside Brussels, there is no political harmony - Belgium still doesn't have a govt, Rutte is hanging on by one vote, Italy is about to descend into political turmoil, Gilets Jaunes in France, Spain jailing Catalan politicians, Austrian govt falling apart, the GroKo in Germany in tatters as AfD rises, and Lander elections loom; Greece still not happy, a migrant crisis that has never gone away..and as for social harmony, mmm. What do the Greeks think about how they've been treated. How did the Cypriots feel about being used as a test bed for bail ins?

Be careful what you wish for on cohesion - I think the equalisation of pension across the EU is in the programme of works...it'll be our pensions going down.

Cassian Don't worry - JasJas and I have diametrically opposed views on the EU! I think talking about NATO is valid though, as it is the military might that Europe (and the EU) relies on. The EU Military Staff bases its structure on NATO, and the whole thing seems to me to reinvent the wheel. Why duplicate a defence structure that works, has the might of the US there (and the money, let's face it), purely because it's 'European', when many of the member states are already NATO allies? There isn't the will to invest in defence in Europe, unless you are Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania or Poland, as they are in the front line if Putin decides to play silly buggers again.

I was discussing the EU with the vet yesterday, and she doesn't think it will last long. She is Flemish, and tired of the Eurocrats and politicians like Verhofstadt, Juncker et al, lining their pockets, whilst ordinary people struggle. She isn't keen on the euro either - prices in Belgium rose sharply when it was introduced.

Funded a lot of the development in our infrastructure. Helped us put on festivals. Provided leisure during school holidays. Added to the pot for disabled children's services. Helped lessen child poverty.

Added to the pot for services for Adults.

Got us all new kitchens/bathrooms and improvements in HA housing.

Funded health therapies, initiatives and research.

Part funded our new buses.

Is currently funding the Course my DD is on.

Under the new funding, Liverpool will get very little and we are all suffering as it is.

Yes and I wouldn't have met DP or had my wonderful children and wouldn't now live in one of the most beautiful places in the world.
I emigrated as a young adult and would not have been the kind of person able to do it through non EU routes. It's changed the entire course of my life.

Ditto @redtrek, I'm so sad for my kids and so worried about how my wonderful life might change.

I would have much less of a local bus service and fewer staff in my local hospital were it not for the EU and free movement.

Also improved the area that i live in. All the scumbags have been replaced with Latvian families and they are clean, quiet and considerate. There's a few families from other parts of the EU as well, who are the same.

Decent, cosmopolitan, healthy food and brilliant wine being freely available and affordable - I do not welcome a return to the spam of my childhood.

DCs from all backgrounds being able to benefit from schemes such as the Erasmus programme, enabling them to broaden their cultural horizons, learn languages, become citizens of the world (not of "nowhere", you hateful, insular, little Englander, racist prig, May!). In the future those opportunities will only be open to the privileged, I imagine.

But most of all, bringing my wonderful, brilliant, EU friends and colleagues (scientists, doctors, writers, innovators) into our country and into my life. That these amazing people are now afraid for their futures and feeling hounded and hated is a national fucking disgrace.

I am so simultaneously angry and heart-broken about what we have become.

It's allowing DD to have a study year in a faraway non-EU country with generous funding from Erasmus+.

I'm so glad that my Dd is going to benefit. Sadly, until Scotland becomes independent, she may be one of the last.

Allowed the full removal of all customs checks and other checks between NI and the Republic, helping to create peace and allowing one of my friends to take a higher paid teaching job in the Republic while living cheaply in NI.

Cross-border traveling without ID within the Schengen states (Britain did not sign that agreement; I am in Germany).

The ability to show the U.S. the middle finger when the want to force their GMOs, chlorinated chickens and other crap on us. Their is strength in numbers

She isn't keen on the euro either - prices in Belgium rose sharply when it was introduced.

Prices rose when decimalisation was introduced to the UK, according to my GPs and other relatives living in the UK at the time. Retailers, businesses etc., took advantage of people’s initial confusion. You can’t blame blatant opportunism on the EU. Now sterling is going down the toilet and prices are going to go up again.

And as for lining of pockets, NATO is hardly a paragon of virtue in that respect.

I just think that being in a massive shared system, with no tariffs, no customs borders and working together is a good thing economically.

I am sure we will carry on - but when you see other Northern European countries, you see how far behind we really are compared to others.

The EU won the Nobel peace prize in 2012. I know it was controversial but still.

Made it possible for me to gain fluency in two additional European languages, by allowing me to take advantage of exchanges, Erasmus scheme, teaching abroad schemes. True, people learned languages before we joined the EU but the EU made this a realistic option for people across the social spectrum, not just the wealthy and well connected.

I live in a part of the West Midlands that has benefitted massively from ERDF (European Regional Development Fund). My workplace wouldn’t exist without it - it was a massive contributor to its creation. We have plaques with the European flag on around the building and my heart sinks a bit when I see one.

It allowed to to move abroad, meet ex p, create dc and give them the most amazing early childhood before we came back to the uk for 'real life'. Thankfully dc now have dual nationality and will be able to still have the benefits their Scottish friends will not.

I have coeliac disease. The EU's standardised food regulations have introduced labelling that means I can eat safely without poisoning myself. Much riskier to eat in countries with this protection, like the US.

We have enjoyed the benefits of being the 5th largest economy in the world, which we have achieved whilst in the EU www.google.co.uk/amp/s/uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKBN1OI00L

And we have been largely at peace, trade and borrowing are good for maintaining peace between countries.

High quality and safety standards of food and products that we trade.

Easy fast movement through passport control, and ability to take goods either way duty free.

EHIC cards.