You didn’t need the EU for the removal of trade barriers and the common market. Both were established quite a while before the EU as we know it now became a thing in the 90s.
reply> we really want those border checks back
Why? You don’t need to be in the EU to belong to Shengen.
The European Union is actually an union of treaties, with countries that sign some and not others. So here you would need to be more specific.
replyThat used to be the case. i.e. if imposing Chat Control on all countries would have required a treaty it would hardly have any chances. However national governments have delegated the right to EU institutions to impose mandatory regulations. You can’t pick and chose anymore.
replyNot really.
replyNorway is not EU, it's EEA, which is more like what you describe (the population rejected joining twice in referendums, but the politicians still wanted some treaties).
Why one couldn't have all these without the EU ?
replyTo hold large corps accountable you need clout, and the individual countries don't have that.
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reply> Being able to go on vacation with no trouble is massive.
replyYou are unironically using 'vacation destinations' as argument for modifying your legal system to fit foreign lobbying needs. All is lost.
The custom thing started from basically the beginning of eu, this wasn't done in the last decades, but the customs chargers for outside stuff have been increased by the EU. The large corporations are not reall accountable, Volkswagen screwed up, americans got buyback programms, hyundai/kia screwed up, americans got gas cards... intel scews up (spectre, no hyperthreading to keep safe), europeans get nothing. And yes, there are border checks within EU, just had to show my ID yesterday on the slovenia-austria border.
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