This is precisely why the US loves to balkanize big countries.
Balkanize. Bulkanize would probably be the opposite :D Look at that bulky Euro cube!
That’s ironic, in a way, that there’s no Ukraine among those flags. Adding it would actually make the EU much stronger. A real life modern war experience (literally the most experienced country on the planet), plus the biggest country in Europe. With quite a large international community of emigrants (due to harsh historical circumstances). Plus experience filtering Russian propaganda, which is quite strong and influential (for those unaware).
Putin also knows how strong Europe would be with Ukraine, which is likely why he is so hell bent on destabilising the bloc and taking Ukraine for himself. The sad part is it seems to be working for him. Even if he doesn't get Ukraine the way he hoped, the campaign to destabilise the bloc is worrying.
I agree that Ukraine would be a good addition to the EU (I hope that both the war and the EU join process will finish), but this meme is just about the EU not being a federation yet, so there's no reason to add the Ukrainian flag now.
I’m not sure on the federation thing (I just don’t understand how it would work for the EU), but I’m 100% sure when Russia would become a set of independent states (and not a federation it pretends it is), global terrorism would just go incredibly less, within one day, literally. They contribute to global chaos quite a lot. Especially backed by PRC and the US (administration) being a Russian puppet.
What do you Mean? It won't work without federalisation. With a federal EU, we would have a united military force, united economics, united international politics. Actually having a say in the global world as it is changing/collapsing. This is what canada, Mexico and australia is envy at us right now.. We have the chance to be a 3rd superpower, instead of 27 sepperate nations, competing on who can suck trumps Dick the most.
I'm not quite sure where a federation would differ from what we already have? Would it be a unified codex of laws? Unified economy? Unified military?
I'm not convinced unified laws will ever work due to cultural and environmental differences. e.g. Sweden isn't necessarily going to agree to Italy's ideas on trafic laws, or incarceration methos.
If it's a unified economy, how do we differentiate between the different needs? Do we all adobt Poland's health care system? If we don't, and just continues doing healthcare however we want, is it fair if Belgium needs more money per person for healthcare then Spain in the unified economy?
I can sorta see a unified military work, but that might very well just be because a complete lack of knowledge, and there may be some big differences around.
I think we are still way too different in culture to just accept anything more than what we have right now. It would just lead to massive divides like we see in USA, where massive cultural differences and differences in values are literally tearing the country apart.
With a federal EU, we would have
Even more centralized control by France and Germany. No thanks.
Nothing against better cooperation though.
Soviet Union then. Been there, my parents starve, fuck this shit. If ever Europe gives up their countries sovereignty I am fucking moving out as fast as I can because there won't be discussion if we want scan chat messages or not. Everything will be pushed against people who will mean nothing like they mean nothing in those two other countries. Go fuck yourself and your megalomania.
Why would you think that the European Union would be become like the USSR? It appears to be a frustrating bureaucracy at times, but I never got the impression that member states had to give up any significant amount of sovereignty.
That's the WEF agenda. One tax system, one European army, one Europan country. Ein Reich. Name it like you want.
We have this in the US but the states have a significant amount of sovereignty in law making. Most laws are local. I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just saying I don’t think it has to go down that route.
In all European countries I know laws are local too. The difference in European Union right now is that currently all countries need to agree to pass new law. EU parliament have no decision. It's always consensus. That means discussion. Consensus is good. Drop discussion you will end up with big countries that pass the laws against smaller countries. Why ? Because number of people in EU parliament from your country is determined by your country population size. Look up table and amount of seats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_European_Parliament_election You need just top 5 countries to get majority of votes.
Why are the cubes similar in size, that is very misleading.
In terms of GDP they're roughly equivalent
Would you rather fight 27 country sized eu members or 1 eu sized country?
Why else do you think Putin and now his puppet wants it broken up?
Apes together strong
I had a look at some stats regarding how EU citizens perceive the EU. I found this recent EU survey which interestingly shows that EU citizens trust the EU more than they trust their national governments:
Also that link says that "74% say that, taking everything into account, their country has benefited from being a member of the EU". So perhaps the EU will survive and strengthen, despite its critics like those in the Trump administration.
Most people in the smaller EU countries are very keenly aware that without the power of the group to face the World's large countries they would be nothing more than footballs for the big powers, same as before the EU.
It's not by chance that the only country to ever leave was big-sized (in Europe terms, but mid-sized in World terms) one with nationalistic delusions of grandeur leftover from the time when they headed an Empire.
Europe is a vassal state of the US, as we're seeing with Venezuela now.
We even saw this with trade negotiations in 2025, where after Trump applied tariffs to the EU following the Big Bootycheeks Bill and the EU retaliated, that retaliation swiftly went away as Trump forced Europe to buy Americans' food, technology, cars, and energy, to invest in US businesses, to loosen the EU's policies towards good corporate governance and sustainable as it applies to US businesses doing trade in Europe, as well as an assortment of other actions.
So while you might believe that a United Europe can stand up to the US and China, you forget how much the EU relies on both of them. Yes, including China, which the EU would be smart to build ties with as the becomes more and more the 4th Reich.
If I want to purchase well made goods, I always look to Europe. The new watch band I got for Christmas came from a European maker (Watch-straps). The headphones I purchased last year came from Europe (Fairphone). The undershirts, underwear, and socks I bought last year all came from Europe (Dedicated).
Europe has some of the best policies in the world for fair trade and good economic production, sans socialism in China.
Just don't forget where the EU sits on the global stage. It's not on the same level as the US and China, two superpowers.
China isn't socialist though, I'm sick of ~~both tankies and right wingers~~ many pretending that it is.
Edit: being less of a dick about differing opinions.
Seriously, they do capitalism better than the west.
China isn't socialist though
Just to be clear, we're distinguishing between socialism and communism, right?
Communism being the end goal of socialism, which is a stateless, moneyless, classless, borderless society, one that only exists only after the entire world also becomes communist and snuffs out capitalism from every country on the planet.
China has a socialist market economy. Just because it has a market economy doesn't mean that this doesn't make it socialist. The public sector still dominates, as 24 out of the 25 largest corporations are state owned. There are other examples of socialist characteristics that I'm too lazy to post here.
Also, I'm not a tankie. All states are evil, but China is far less imperialistic that the US and Russia.
I'm not a tankie
Fair enough, I was being a bit obtuse with this one. Apologies.
China is far less imperialistic that the US and Russia.
Agree. Of the 3 China (at the moment) is the least imperialistic.
Just to be clear, we're distinguishing between socialism and communism, right?
Nope. I mean what I said. The wealth inequality is massive, similar to the US. The work rights are pretty crap, similar to the US (maybe even worse, though I wouldn't want to say that authoritatively)
Having a capitalist market economy is kinda antithetical socialism, no? Well, at least what they currently have, with the excessive wealth people have been allowed to amass, on the backs of the working class who have shared in a much, much smaller fraction of the wealth they have generated.
They have a lot of state owned and run companies, many of which don't have the primary aim only to make a profit (love this), but this doesn't change the fact that the class system is in full swing there, and is permitted by the government.
Pressuring officials and rich people to be less austentatious isn't exactly taking away the power people have due to their excessive wealth.
It's been decades, I think they've let enough people get rich first (though I disagree that this was necessary - the letting people get excessively wealthy part, not the reform in general), it's about time they do SOMETHING to curb wealth inequality (they won't though, because this would cause an uproar from the wealthy, as is the case in other countries)
They don't have a true union movement, all unions must be part of the party. Strikes are done, but very rarely and in spite of the unions, and they are barely tolerated by the authorities. There is very little, if any, difference between how much workers there have a say in their workplace compared to other capitalist countries.
They don't have meaningful power over government policy. That's handed down from on-high from the party elite (yes, with some minor consultation). China is not democratic, and in my view socialism must have workers democracy, by definition, though perhaps some will disagree with this. (But to me saying the word socialism implies rule of the workers, and that is definitely not what is happening in China)
Hope that clears things up about my opinion, and thanks for not responding to my inflammatory comment with more of the same. Sorry for my candor on this one.
I think calling it a vassal state is a bit hyperbolic. Large powers such as the US or China can exert massive political force on any country, even each other. Sometimes it's better to give up your lunch money than be forced to take out your card and empty your bank account. And because the US has traditionally been an ally of Europe, the two are well connected and thus have many contact points to be pressured in (Especially points that hurt, like defense). Points that the EU might want to keep quiet on until they can bear the pressure, especially since the US is currently led by a felon with the mind of a child that wages wars for tantrums.
The EU has kept it's direction, which has always been further ahead of the US in terms like voting rights, healthcare, and life satisfaction, but the US has now taken a stark turn diverging from that path. Sure there are politicians in the EU that like to be US bootlickers, but even those are not a particular fan of what Trump is doing. We do have Hungary, and some others, but those are far too outnumbered to be considered to be making a vassal state out of Europe.
Europe definitely has the capacity to be a super power, but indeed we can only do it together. And lets not forget that China and the US also depend on Europe for a lot. If you look at trade, we are effectively equals.
Saying Europe is a US vassal state is a bit much lol. Europe is one of the biggest economic powers in the world together with the US and China. They all export and import a lot of wares between each other and thus depend on each other. The tariff deal the EU got with the US wasn't that great and the leader of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, got some backlash because of that but I guess her tactic was to just appease Trump so they will have more time to transition away from the US in some areas. On the other hand that deal reduced some very annoying tariffs on steel and car parts, so it was partially successful.
If we have to pay the same price for being as big as China and the US, would it be worth it?
Having an elite that is beyond democratic control is not worth fighting for. We could as well join one of the big cubes.
We should try to strengthen democracy and freedom and find ways to succeed with that.
In a global capitalist order, you don't get to strengthen your democracy without achieving a mostly independent economy first (or somewhat simultaneously.) One that produces the vast majority of the commodities your people need for their daily lives. If you don't have that, you'd get subordinated by the large capitalist countries as they run out of value they can extract domestically or elsewhere. For example you'd get sanctioned into investing billions into their economy and buying from it at higher prices instead of investing that domestically. Then your democracy gets fucked because it doesn't deliver the life improvements its subjects vote for.
This is why you need the union, as not a single European country is sufficiently self-sufficient. The union isn't sufficiently self-sufficient either but it can get there faster and easier than individual countries. And it doesn't have to develop an unaccountable elite. Mind you it already has one. The opposite, it has to .. eat it .. in order to make the job easier by stopping the siphoning and misallocation of resources needed for development.
As an American, someone please smash the USA cube into a million pieces
Apes together strong!
Very reasonable, but unfortunately not feasible with the chancellor of my home country, Germany. Friedrich Merz is nothing but a US lobbyist and definitely not a representative of the people. How can we get rid of corrupt politicians like that? I fear that things will even get much worse in Germany soon, because the fascist AfD, which in my opinion is nothing more than a front for US billionaires, will probably be the strongest force in our country, since the same social media platforms are at work here as in the US - with the same owners. But first, here is an excerpt from the CV of the current German chancellor, which should illustrate what I mean:
Friedrich Merz (born November 11, 1955, in Brilon), tenth Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany since May 6, 2025, CDU federal chairman since 2022, former business lawyer and long-time top lobbyist, has held leadership positions in a number of companies and business-related interest groups and networks. [1] Until the end of 2021, Merz was vice president of the CDU's business lobby group, the Economic Council, and a guest member of the presidium of the Small and Medium-Sized Business and Economic Union (MIT). In 2022, the MIT welcomed Merz's election as CDU chairman and stated that he was the first chairman to be a member of the MIT.[4] Armin Peter, most recently deputy press spokesman for the Economic Council and press spokesman for the then Economic Council Vice President Merz, has been deputy spokesman for the CDU and personal press spokesman for Merz since February 2022.[5] [6] Merz continues to be a member of the following organizations: Founding member of the New York section of the CDU Economic Council,[7] lobby organization Society for the Study of Structural Policy Issues,[8] Ludwig Erhard Foundation network, which brings together lobbyists and top politicians. Merz worked as senior counsel for the law firm Mayer Brown LLP until the end of 2021; prior to that, he was a partner for nine years.[9] During his time at Mayer Brown, he advised clients on corporate law, M&A transactions, compliance, and banking and finance law. According to research by CORRECTIV, he represented BASF as a lawyer on several occasions in 2010 and 2011. [10] He was a member of the board of directors at BASF Antwerp for almost a decade, where he headed the "Paints & Pigments" division of the BASF Group. From 2009 to 2019, Merz was chairman of Atlantik-Brücke [11] and from 2016 to 2020, he was chairman of the supervisory board of the German branch of asset manager BlackRock, for which he mediated relationships with important clients, authorities, and government agencies in Germany. [12] He was active in the Market Economy Foundation as a member of the Political Advisory Board of the Tax Code Commission. [13] In connection with his candidacy for the CDU party chairmanship, Merz ended his role as chairman of the supervisory board of Blackrock at the end of the first quarter of 2020.[14][15] At the 2021 CDU party conference, he lost a digital runoff election to his rival Armin Laschet. At the party conference on January 22, 2022, he was elected chairman of the CDU with 94.62% of the delegates' votes. [16] On September 23, 2024, Merz was officially nominated as the CDU and CSU's candidate for chancellor in the next federal election. [17]
[Translated from German | Source with source references]
Here's the Grokipedia article:
Friedrich Merz (born 11 November 1955) is a German lawyer and politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 6 May 2025 and chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since January 2022.[1][2][3] Born in Brilon, North Rhine-Westphalia, to a family with judicial and political ties, Merz studied law at the universities of Bonn and Saarland, qualifying as a judge before entering private practice as an attorney specializing in corporate and mergers-and-acquisitions matters.[1][2] His professional career included senior roles at the international law firm Mayer Brown and chairmanship of the supervisory board at BlackRock Asset Management Deutschland AG, positions that underscored his expertise in finance and business regulation.[4][2] Merz joined the CDU as a teenager in 1972 and advanced through its ranks, serving as a Member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1994 and representing the Hochsauerlandkreis district in the Bundestag from 1994 to 2009, during which he led the CDU/CSU parliamentary group from 2000 to 2002.[1][2] After departing electoral politics in 2009 to focus on corporate leadership, he re-entered in 2018, securing a Bundestag seat in 2021 and assuming CDU chairmanship amid the party's post-election introspection, positioning it as a proponent of market-oriented reforms and transatlantic security cooperation.[3][2] Leading the CDU/CSU to a plurality in the 23 February 2025 snap federal election following the collapse of the prior coalition, Merz negotiated a governing alliance and was elected chancellor in a second parliamentary ballot on 6 May 2025—the first such instance in postwar German history after an initial failure to secure an absolute majority.[3][5][6] Merz's tenure has emphasized fiscal discipline, bolstering NATO commitments, and addressing migration pressures through stricter enforcement, reflecting his long-standing conservative stance on economic competitiveness and rule-of-law priorities.[3][7]
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