Troubled times in the European Union

[Second Summer]

While the immigration crisis and the economic disaster in Greece have died down a bit and have been off the media's radar for a while, we still have Brexit in progress and Eurosceptic populists are gaining power in Italy. There are also the ongoing problems with rightwing governments in Poland and Hungary who are refusing to receive any refugees and are breaking with the very principles on which the EU was built. The far right is making significant gains in elections. Unemployment among young people in Spain is ridiculously high. And there's an ongoing, escalating conflict with Russia, which is probably the beginning of another Cold War.

Is it fair to say the EU is in a crisis? I think so.

Edit: A few issues I had forgotten:

• A possible trade war with the USA
• The handling of the Catalonian independence referendum

 

[Second Summer]

A bit of good news:

Yesterday the European parliament passed a new law that will end the conflation of free movement of people with the undercutting of local workers by EU migrants.

During the 2016 EU referendum campaign, the issue of free movement was front and centre. Remember all those people saying how eastern European workers would come to the UK and work for less, meaning they couldn’t get jobs in their own towns? The EU has finally addressed this issue.

Full letter: 'The EU has just passed a law that could end the problems with free movement which led to Brexit in the first place' (Jude Kirton-Darling, MEP for the northeast England region (Labour) an Agnes Jongerius, MEP for the Netherlands, 30. May 2018)

This sounds like a major step forward. While I'm a EU sceptic, I'd much rather see it repaired rather than fall apart.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

Serious issues in Spain, Turkey, and some other countries in the East.

The nucleus of scandinavia, France, Germany, Benelux mostly doing OK though? That is the moral and economic heart of the EU in my view. Possibly Austria, Switzerland, Portugal you could throw in there as more stable countries.

 

[Second Summer]

I added a few extra issues to the list in my OP: The potential trade war with the US, and the very questionable handling of the Catalonian independence referendum.

The nucleus of scandinavia, France, Germany, Benelux mostly doing OK though? That is the moral and economic heart of the EU in my view. Possibly Austria, Switzerland, Portugal you could throw in there as more stable countries.

Well, Switzerland isn't actually part of the EU Italy and Spain are the 4th and 5th largest EU economies, respectively. The UK is the 2nd largest (just ahead of France).

 

[Second Summer]

The rise to power of far right parties in Europe is unsettling. Italy's new deputy prime minister is apparently somewhat unhinged.

Matteo Salvini’s comments are being shared on social media after he announced a “census” of the country’s Roma community, setting the stage for deportations of the ethnic group.

More:
Italy's deputy PM called for 'mass cleansing, street by street, quarter by quarter', newly resurfaced footage reveals (21. June 2018)
(Note: the "mass cleansing" comments were made last yeary before he became part of the government.)

 

[Second Summer]

In a compromise, new migrant centres are to be set up in EU countries on a "voluntary" basis.

They would determine who are "irregular migrants, who will be returned".

The relocation and resettlement of genuine refugees would also take place on a voluntary basis, the agreement says.

More: Migrant crisis: EU summit leaders reach deal after marathon talks (29. June 2018)

The voluntary nature of these measures make me think the agreement is going to prove inadequate for resolving a lot of the problems we've seen.

 

[Second Summer]

A few more issues:

• Merkel resigning as party leader of CDU, probably resigning as prime minister as well in the not too distant future. This means her party, and Germany, will probably take a step to the right.
• Italy and it's budget issues.

I was also just reading this article, which sounds quite worrying:

I live among the neo-Nazis in eastern Germany. And it’s terrifying | Anonymous (31. Oct. 2018)

 

[shyvas]

A few more issues:

• Merkel resigning as party leader of CDU, probably resigning as prime minister as well in the not too distant future. This means her party, and Germany, will probably take a step to the right.
• Italy and it's budget issues.

I was also just reading this article, which sounds quite worrying:

I live among the neo-Nazis in eastern Germany. And it’s terrifying | Anonymous (31. Oct. 2018)

A very interesting article. It seems that despite all of these years since the wall was torn down, there still is
a divide between west and east Germany.

Bloomberg - How the Populist Right Is Redrawing the Map of Europe

 

[Second Summer]

Just reading the news over the last couple of days, I'm reminded that while we have our problems in Europe, there are other places that are much, much, far worse:

• In Tanzania the government is starting to arrest LBGTQ people and calling for the general population to snitch on them, the goal being to eradicate homosexuality in the country.
  
• In Pakistan a huge mob wants to see the death of a Christian woman who has just been acquitted for blasphemy, and who has been on death row for 8 years. The mob has forced the government to ban the woman from leaving the country, even though she was acquitted by the supreme court.
• A famine is about to hit Yemen, thanks to the war and the Saudi-led blockade. Lots of pictures of children looking more like skeletons than living human beings. (Though, European governments are of course complicit in this, so there's that ...)