24.6.02022

Feature photo: Stand with Ukraine, flags of Ukraine and the EU

prize-giving

The third award ceremony for this year's European competition took place this morning at the Schlossberg School in Auenstein. The principal Heidi Ade has her school under control and so it is always a pleasure to go to Auenstein.

I was particularly pleased today that we also came back from Ilsfeld with new ideas for the upcoming 70th European competition. If we can find enough fellow campaigners by then, we will definitely be able to offer the students a lot next year.

Europa crickets

At least for the members of the EUROPA-UNION and other Europe enthusiasts, there is no more attractive festival this weekend than our traditional Europe barbecue in Untergruppenbach.

Organized purely on a voluntary basis and always following the potluck principle, it is not only a festival of superlatives in terms of sustainability and environmental compatibility, but also a "family festival" in the truest sense of the word. For some, already somewhat older, participants, it is also a good substitute for the former family festival on the Gaffenberg.

And so I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's festival. If someone has forgotten to register, they can contact me today.

Candidates

There have long been states in the European Union that may have been granted candidate status at their own request and after an initial review by the heads of government of the current EU member states.

With yesterday's European Council decision, we now have the following candidates: Albania (2014), Moldova (2022), Montenegro (2010), North Macedonia (2005), Serbia (2012), Turkey (1999) and Ukraine (2022 ).

Years ago, Morocco was officially signaled that it would not become a candidate, Switzerland and Norway failed because of their own people's decision, Iceland withdrew its application and the United Kingdom only recently left the EU. Georgia never stood a chance of candidate status.

If you look at the Member States Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Malta and (South) Cyprus, then you have to ask yourself what the whole thing is actually about?

Officially, according to the EU treaties, anyone can European Countries can apply for membership if they respect the EU's democratic values ​​and are committed to promoting them.

More specifically, a country can only become a member if it meets all the membership criteria:

• political criteria – it must have stable institutions capable of guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law and human rights,
• economic criteria - it must have a functioning market economy and be able to withstand competitive pressures and market forces within the Union,
• legal criteria - it must accept the current EU legislation and its implementation in practice, in particular the main objectives of political, economic and monetary union.

If we actually take these criteria seriously, we would have to throw far more Member States out than previously assumed.

For this reason, and also in view of the fact that there will be no further deepening within the current EU, it would certainly be better for world peace if we not only included all the states mentioned above, but also all of North Africa, including all those bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

In return, however, we would then have to prevent a "financial equalization between the states", a "debt union" or a conscious attempt to standardize the social systems.

Under these conditions, all member states can try to stimulate each other peacefully and explore possible further cooperation.

However, it is then very important that a “core Europe” merges into a European federal state as quickly as possible, whereby later members can only join the federal state if they also fully recognize its constitution.

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Facts about the EU

I would like to point you to a relevant one Blog post from 2005, which I also update from time to time.