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 ?

1. Achieved an objective set out in the Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957, of creating a trading community that has made possible a period of peace between nations and replaced hostility with co-operation and respect. This has prevented war between independent European nations for a longer period than any other in the last millennium of European history.

1. Provided the essential foundation to achieve a previously unachievable peace on the island of Ireland. Read the Belfast Agreement to see what I mean, it's on every page. That the Tory Party, the party that was attacked by the IRA in Brighton, still holds to its age-old contempt for Ireland and the Irish, is unconscionable. If we leave the EU, terrorism could easily come to somewhere near you and me, again.

These two are the joint winners by a very long way for me. But not if you're a Tory, of course. Many people might feel better about this if we'd lost WW2. Looking at you, ERG.

1. Twice, the EU Parliament, in 2016 and 2019, responding to pressure from people all over the EU, has rejected the TTIP treaty with the USA that would let all the nasties in US food production into Europe. It would have let in the abominable system of secret trade courts that have treaty power to override national legislatures in any way that affects manufacturers' profit margins. Taking back control? I don't think so.

4 Protected me from being exploited by stopping my employer forcing me to work longer hours than was productive or safe for my health.

5, Protects me from numerous dangerous products and food by a pro-active policy which ensures that products and foods have to be proven safe before being released on the market. This is probably the most important thing for me after nos. 1 and 2 as it affects everything we use, every aspect of life, from crop spraying, to hormone fed meat, to baby food.

1. As a business owner with an international, mainly European clientele, given me an easy and reasonably effective method of recovering debts from customers in a foreign country.

1. Protects me from discrimination on grounds of disability. This was introduced by Gordon Brown's government following legislation proposed by the EU. Look what the Tories and Lib Dems have done to that, including ignoring Court rulings that have made some governmental actions actually unlawful.

1. Provided funding for regeneration of public spaces I know and use, that could not have come from government spending in such volume. And from a Tory government, would not have been there at all.

1. Easier foreign travel to see people I love.

This is after just a quick think, I don't have time to put down all the rest that's come to mind while typing this.

Leaving the EU is the hill I'm willing to die on. I never thought anything could make me say that, in this 21st century. It means that much.

Gave me a million pounds in research funding.

Got me a nice coffee yesterday in the local independent garden centre renovated using ERDF funding. I don’t know how many extra people are now employed, but it’s quite a few. It’s a lovely resource for local people and was being well used.

Kept the little Welsh town where I go on holiday safe by funding its sea defences.

Can’t imagine the British government funding something like that at the moment. Small, unimportant places like ours will be left to rot.

I'm surprised that so many posters seem confused about what the EU has done. There seems lots of misinformation about the GFA; the ECHR; NATO, etc.

How odd that a thread to celebrate the EU has ended up showing that some people don't even understand it.

I think the EU has been hugely important for peace. It keeps us all talking, forcing us into a room for the often boring, mundane act of governing. It strengthens relationships across the continent and I think that probably does more for peace than the on-the-nose war/peace discussions of NATO. If that makes any sense.

I'm from Ireland, the EU has been a huge support to us. I was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s, every major infrastructure project as we developed had a big sign with the EU flag. We have become a prosperous, outward looking nation and our EU membership has been a huge part of that.

I live in NI now and the impact of peace here just can't be overstated. It is a truly wonderful place to live, but it does feel as though that is at risk. The extent of the EU's role in the GFA negotiations can be debated, but the importance of ROI and NI being in the same regulatory regime and thus having a fully open border can't be.

Lastly, after centuries of being a small country of little influence, Ireland is now seeing the benefit of having 26 friends who have its back.

Which brings me back to my first point, and the whole reason for the EU IMO - we always do better when we work together.

Allowed Millions of non skilled workers to come to the UK and take low paid jobs from the poorer less academic UK citizens, helping to keep wages low, even the ONS today said they vastly under estimated the numbers to arrive.
I met my DH in the 60's in Europe, way before we joined the ECC,
How have a Trade organisation stop war in Europe ? more NATO and a more passive population,
I would love to think what the European countries could have done with the Billions that the EU have lavished on themselves wages, hotels, Food, Drink, travel, Brussels, Strasburg vast amounts of money wasted,
All the Damage to the environment with all this just in time journeys back and forth
What makes you think that there was no travel before the EU ?
Etc, etc, haven't got time to list them all

Pretty much everything as we will soon find out.

Yes @Hester54 very good.... now have you any positives?

Perhaps you should start your own thread "What will leaving the EU do for you?"

As you can see by the number of respondents on this thread, the vast majority see the EU as a positive force :)

Low wages wouldn't have anything to do with company bosses keeping profits to themselves would it?and a welfare system that encourages low wages as our benefits system will top them up.

Aside, the ONS figures are now being classed as "experimental" as its finally dawned on them that asking a handful of people at a 'port, may not give us accurate figures of eu or non eu migration, the UK stopped counting out or in years ago.

How odd that a thread to celebrate the EU has ended up showing that some people don't even understand it.

This

Scary The UN NATO and the yes the EU have all helped keep the peace, proven by the fact we haven't had WW3.

I do not think the EU is perfect, far from it, however, its the best we've got and in no way does being in the EU limit our abilities to work with other countries, we'd not have Trident if that was the case or have some of the worlds top universities, staffed in many cases by EU nationals!
We've also developed London into a world leading financial centre whilst IN the EU.

TBH I find it very surprising you think we only work with the eu27.

Brexit may limit our opportunities, as we reduce access to the EU, if anyone thinks there will not be a cost for the chaos we are going to cause europe in a no-deal brexit, they are deluded, we are are in effect subjecting them to deliberate economic harm.

Had lunch at Two bridges the other sunday, sirloin from Howells, i'd try Palmers or better still some hormone treated GM feed steak from the USA, onsale after 31/10.

The biggest thing for me is that it promoted peace, co-operation and prosperity with and amongst our nearest neighbours. That is priceless.

@paddlingwhenIshouldbeworking exactly. Well put. Totally agree.

How have a Trade organisation stop war in Europe

Trading and working with other countries and moving freely between countries is seen as a good thing and reduces war and conflict.

If they are seen as competitors, with resources that another country wants, that can lead to conflict and war.

Personally - being about to live and work in both Portugal and Germany without the need for a visa or a high salary. Fantastic times and Germany is where I met my husband.
More widely - clean beaches without sewage, maternity rights, working time directive, higher food standards, investment in deprived areas that our own governments have left to rot, peace in NI and also
70 years of peace and prosperity in a continent previously ravaged by endless wars. F@ck Brexit.

I do think we would have a very different attitude to Europe and the EU if we weren't an island and instead if we had land borders with mainland Europe.

We did a road trip recently through 6 EU countries and Norway. Just amazing to see the mixture of people from different countries and the fact that each country still had its identity but were happy with the EU.

For some reason, they aren't pushing to 'take back control' of laws and to trade freely as an individual country - maybe the shock of WW2 and being invaded and occupied made them see things differently?

Employee rights
consumer rights
human rights

Do you really not know any of this?

Being able to trade - i regularly buy things from EU countries that i can't source here, they arrive in a couple of days to my door. No custom delays or additional charges.

My job involves a lot of European travel, removing freedom of movement is going to make that harder.

What has the EU ever done for me?

Nothing monumental.
I’ll live without it.

I’ll live without it

I'm sure life will go on. We'll be poorer than we would have been without leaving, have less opportunities and be more divided.

Life will go on. Then people will see that despite leaving, their lives don't improve because the promises Johnson has made don't happen.

How odd that a thread to celebrate the EU has ended up showing that some people don't even understand it.

Do you also find it very odd that most people, when asked why they voted FOR Brexit, keep talking about kippers, bendy bananas and blue passports?

I voted Remain principally for peace in Europe. Let us hope we can preserve it after Brexit. We certainly did have it from 1945 until we joined in the 70s but it is a big issue. The other issues are not as important. I do respect the referendum result however. Remain lost and we are where we are. (I remember when we joined the EU and before we did).

Many wonderful specialist doctors who have literally saved my dh life. & nurses & other medical staff. Many technicians who work in the NHS - we don't train enough &/or not enough people are willing to work in the UK for the lower salaries in the NHS of the correct calibre. In general -the space industry (one of the most successful in the UK) is trans Europe.

kept of from being a victim - I mean- subservient partner to Trump et al - I wonder what we will have to give up afterwards to remain a "full" partner with them - more than what we have "lost" as members of the EU &with less freedom, choice & workers rights, cost of education, quality of food, & loss of the NHS free at source &...…..

Ugh! kept US from being victims

One of my best friends is european

The food
The wine
The long summer trips

Also I'm from Cornwall and it's funded a great deal of very worthwhile projects in the SW which have improved lives massively. It's sad Cornwall voted leave so strongly 🤦🏻‍♀️

Oh and the obvious like

Human rights
Maternity leave
Working time regulations (so good for shift workers and I don't just mean the 48hr limit but things like 12 hrs between shifts etc)
Protections on the quality of our food (shitting hell America just no)