Originally Posted by
Barry Dragon
Pros
-Being a member of the EURO allows germany to have a significantly weaker currency than it would have if it had its own currency. Making its exports cheaper than they should be, strengthening the economy.
Cons
-Being a member of the Euro the poorer 25 states have a stronger currency than they should, causing problems where exports are more expensive than they should be. This problem is then further added to by not having its own central bank to help revive the economy. See Italy Greece Spain for examples.
Being a member of the EU.
Pros
-Frictionless trading between a big bloc of nations
-Reduced costs for business as you can move and employ the cheapest labour
-Business can move tax around to the lowest tax economy like Belgium and Ireland easily (still possible outside, but more paperwork)
-Human Rights many of the less developed economies have greater protections for their people
Freedom of movement of labour allows you to move further afield to find a good job
-Common legislation amongst member groups allows items around the bloc to be the same, allowing reduced costs by economies of scale
-An unused potential to come together exert influence around the world
-Freedom of movement of labour allows expertise to come together to increase talent. Such movement of labour increases the wages of the highly skilled workforce
-ability to carry out large scale scientific projects (though feasible without EU)
-an attempt to level out the playing field in terms of european grants for the poorest areas of the bloc
Cons
-business can play off countries easily to reduce taxes and not pay them where they are morally due
-labour movement encourages business to employ the cheapest labour suppressing the lowest wages in society
-Unnecessary laws on fruit increasing costs and waste, laws on weigh units (have to use grams). 0-60, is now 0-62 (100kph)
-An inability for countries like France Spain and the UK to create trade deals with its former colonies/countries that it has historic ties with
-A one size fits all approach
-Globalisation means such trading blocs are not as necessary as they were.
I struggled more with the negatives and I was a leave voter. But if you consider several of the Pros are possible without the EU existing and that is part of the view of leave. Many parts of europe are great, but we dont requite a political bloc to have them.