What is the point of us being members of the EU?

[Graham H]

It was originally formed as a trading block of countries to compete with larger single markets such as the USA.

Every year more and more countries are admitted and can benefit from trading with other member states without import duty.

The economies of those new member states can receive new grants and subsidies from other member states.

So if we have no limit on membership what is the benefit?

We lose all our rights to self management of our economies and trade but we are at the mercy of countires with lower wages and social benefits so we are undercut in import export.

Now being a member we are less protected tha we were before we were members and we now are not allowed to do anything to protect our trade.
Abfabmom, what makes you think that this is a USA site and only Americans use it?

Twigg. How can free trade work if you have some countries starving their workforce to produce cheap goods competing with other countries that respond to the demand of their citizens for a civilised standard of living. But I think that most countries are more capable of deciding such things at national level rather than international level where there are too many conflicts of interest
Feinschme... Yes I am from UK, I had the same thought as you about the yank who thinks yanks own everything and about the acronym I am old enough to have lived with it being called simply the Common Market, and the European Economic Community and the European Union and I wish the Euro beaurocrats had something better to do than keep changing the name
Yoshiz, In the first place I am not even writing about not benefitting from a common currency because the state I am referring to, the UK, still has not adopted the Euro and should not do so. I am not missing any point, I am saying there is no point. Having the same currency has nothing at all to do with encouraging trade, I wanted a BMW just as much when they sold them in Deutschmarks and I do in Euros or would if the UK traded in Euros. The problem with common currency is that you cannot keep traditionally strong stable low inflation and low interest banking systems such as Germany on a level with high interest, high inflation weak banking systems like Italy so, as with the common agricultural policy, you get the strong dragged down by the weak and an overall reduction in excellence.

[abfabmom1]

I can only answer with another question:

Why are you posting this on the U.S. site?

[twigg808]

If by protect trade you mean artificially inflate the price of foreign goods to make expensive local goods more competitive you would be correct. But that doesn't really fix anyone's problems.

Every country in the world would be better off in the long run opening up their borders to free trade. Poorer countries will be able to sell their products to other countries where they are worth more and richer countries will be able to buy products cheaper than they could be produced locally. Its not an immediate effect but it will develop over time. Also it will probably help poorer countries more than richer countries, but it will help both.

[Feinschmecker]

You've been asked why you're posting this on a US site. To which you might well reply that the poster is clearly ignorant of the fact that it's an international site, not a US one. But you've failed to state that you're within the UK (from your competent use of English) and you're probably English.

Perhaps the question you might better ask, is "What's the use of having national politicians who totally fail to look after the UK's national interests?" A successful addressing of that problem would lead to politicians who would either fight their own national corner within the EC (better get the current name right!) or get the UK out of the EC.

[yoshiz008]

I think that you’re missing the point of the EU. The EU was created to encourage trade. Trade is much more likely to come about when the two countries trading have the same currency. Having one currency also has some dilemmas. For instance, one part of a country may be experiencing a period of economic growth while another part could be experiencing an economic slump. When this happens one side is going to get screwed over. This is because the central Bank looks at the aggregate.

You have to think of the members of the EU not as members but like states of the US (economically speaking). They have one currency, it has one central bank, it makes decisions separately from the governing body. Obviously in the EU's case there is no governing body, but it works the same, independency.

The biggest thing you see lost is each member (state in the US’s case) looses its ability to control its trade because it relinquished this control to the central bank.

In other words, it is this relinquishment of control that gives its members the benefits of being in the EU.

[Glen H]

Oil.

The greenback has been the single currency in oil trading since day one. It is the principle reason you have the economy that the USA enjoys and if it were to be undermined by the French franc, British pound or traded for in euro's as the recent case of Africa deciding recently and went on to become the catalyst to the game of "dominate the oil fields" played out by Mr Bush and co.

What you neglected to say in your question was that you are somewhere in Europe. We are all over the world, I am in Australia.

The British have such a strong economy that they have a unique position on the single currency. The same can not be said for the rest of Europe.