Romania

So many people misunderstand my position on the EU. So let me be clear before I criticise it. The EU is a lovely idea in principle. Let's expand democracy and the benefits of Western living (without, hopefully, the negatives) to as many people as possible. Let's import some of that latin respect for family and that French cooking. Let's export our tendency to queue and our stiff upper lip. Finally, let's be charitable and help those living hand-to-mouth by stopping our abuses of their countries.

In many ways that's what the EU is there to do. But I don't like its non-democratic structure; I don't like the lop-sided way in which it enforces its policies on those who obey rules and I don't like the way it ignores the people more than even our apalling British government. I don't like the Common Agricultural Policy, the Common Fisheries Policy or the attempted replacement of our national flags with the EU non-flag. But most of all I do not like the rules that we do not need but that it likes to impose on us: Common banana curviness (granted it's an oft cited example) is not just a step — it's a giant leap too far.

The reason for this post, though, is one of those things I listed above. The lop-sided way in which its rules are enforced. Insanely this applies to Romania. In a country that is not far from being third world (unlike Poland and Slovakia to name two recent joiners) it is unreasonable to impose the EU's Directives and Regulations. But they must:



I draw your attention to that video only to point out how far Romania is from having legal food handling. Look at the road to the Gypsy village and tell me it needs bumpy slabs to tell people where to cross. It needs bloody paving first!

Meanwhile my party (Conservative) is celebrating because it only narrowly lost a vote in the EPP-ED to have a right-wing Chairman! Gah!

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