I think the main reason for the greater alliance was cost cutting and join actions like Libya. The main plus isn't even military but diplomatic, as the two nations now are closer than ever. I don't really see how it's good for the rest of Europe, as the UK and France don't build weapons together, and the UK and France in foreign policy terms can control the EU through this alliance, which is what they are doing. The same way Germany and France control the Euro. The difference is the British and French plan is working through the EU, the German/French plan is failing. As in economic terms the Germans are closer to the UK than France, so the UK will always be in the economic room, no matter how much France doesn't like it. So the UK in diplomatic terms is just about the strongest it has been since Suez.
'Tomorrow the world' costs money. The UK and France won't spend it. They will leave it to the US, who will continue to do so.
Yes, If the EU becomes further integrated, which i hope it does, our military forces are bound to follow suit... and this is a step in that direction. Ultimately, the EU is the biggest economy in the world right now and with further integration between member states in the future, we may even be able to better the Chinese.... maybe!? There is potential for massive growth in some of the member states. I envisage some of the poorer states catching up with UK GDP/capita levels in a very short time... imagine the spending power! We must remember this. We must also remember that the rest of the world is going to overtake us soon if we dont take action. We should also remember that bickering is a pain in the arse and gets us nowhere....See: Eurofighter. Imagine if our politicians just worried about raising funds for this project and left the actual job of doing it, up to our engineers It would have been even more amazing... and would have cost 1/2, if that. If we were able to join forces and understand that together we would be one of, if not the greatest power in the world, we could do great things. We are all after the same things ultimately and I cannot see any chance of that changing in the future. The world is changing... and we need to be a part of that. All of us going it alone wont let us get a foot in. At the end of the day, the UK, Germany and France are the only member states with any sort of great power status.... meh! I would rather be part of the worlds prominent superpower, thank you very much. The United States of America works fine... so would the United states of Europe.
I don't argee with more economic and political union, for me the EU is to project all the members power on the world stage, meaning the Europeans are still a world player. I agree with the common market, but it must be speeded up, and the EU parliament must get power taken away from it and given back to the member nations, things like farming and fishing, and less control over red tape. I think the EU should be a foreign policy and diplomatic union, as right now that's the only thing that the EU does well. With greater military sharing, between member nations. The can work with operation in the Gulf against pirats, but I also think the leader of this should be British or French. And the UK wants the EU for projecting it's ideas and it's power, the Germans want to EU so they get more control over Europe and the French want both. And the EU is more like the UK than the US.
You do realize that the Chinese economy is less than half the size of the economy of the U.S. and the combined economy's of the European Union, right? It's productivity is also much much lower.
Yes but we are growing at 1-2%, China is growing at just under 9%. They and India will catch us. But they will not over take us, as many people think, what's happening now isn't a shift in power from west to east as people think, it's a realignment of power, no one nation or union will be miles ahead of any other, their will be 5 main players, India, China, Brazil, US and EU.
China's GDP in 2011, according to the IMF was about 11 trillion. The US' GDP in 2011 was 15.2 trillion. The EU's GDP was about 15.6 trillion. However, China's growth has been, and will continue to be, massive. The west, however, has not had such fortune... The IMF, CIA, World bank, and just about every international financial institution, believes that China will overtake both the EU and US by 2016 (Yes, 4 yrs time!)....2020 at a push. And if you think that the Chinese GDP/capita is under $6000 (about 1/4 of the western nations) a year, it doesn't take long to realise that their potential and will to narrow this gap will remain for a long time.
Your numbers are wrong. Your 11 trillion figure is "adjusted" for purchasing parity which is a controversial comparison to say the least. The IMFs "REAL" GDP numbers for China in 2010 were 5.8 trillion.
They're growing so fast because they're so far behind. Eventually China (more than likely) and India (possibly) will surpass the U.S., but this is only because they have 4-5 times the population of the United States. It's not really an indicator of quality as much as it is of quantity. If China has a GDP of 40 trillion with 1.3 billion people and the U.S. has a GDP of 30 trillion with 300 million people, which economy is more efficient and which economy has more free cash flows? People somehow think that the U.S. is "losing" to China...its not. China is just pulling itself from the dirt and reaching Economic levels that the U.S./Europe were at in the 1940s/50s. With its massive population and very low starting point, its natural to have such high rates of growth. As China closes the gap its growth will slow down. As GDP per capita increases they'll suddenly have all the same comeptitive/wage issues that the U.S./Europe have. In fact, China is already begining to lose jobs to other countries (Vietnam, Laos, Pakistan) and is suffering from growing pains.
Also China has had a huge boost in the last 15 years, that is Hong Kong, in that year China grew by 16% and 9% of that was Hong Kong. Also the building roads and railways fast yes, but they aren't of the same quality as say Japan of those in Europe. Also China has huge imports of food and fuel, that the US and EU don't they can feed themselves, India and China can't. That is why those 2 nation export 20 million plus people each year, they can't feed them. Have you ever heard of a thing call peak economy, it is when a nation can't get anything more out of itself, for me that is what happened in Japan, which in economic and business terms is the best nation on earth. And I bet Japan will now grow at 3% this year, because it's economy has taken a knock, but it will not grow much more after that, because it can't. Everything has a limit.
