Carina's Blog

the good,the bad and the ugly

And here comes another post - suppose that's the way it goes when you start posting two days before your deadline. In my defence though,I have to say that it was not (only) down to procrastination,but the rather dauntingly complex specialist topic I have set myself to explore.

If you wonder why I chose it in the first place - well,to explore it,and this is just as well a disclaimer that I am by no means an authority in the field of European Politics,nor informed enough on a topic so broad and complex to have a well-formed wholly justifiable opinion on the whole subject, or the general philosophy of the EU and its character,history,future,anything! (but then,who has...)

And opinions are certainly a salient point when it comes to blogging (and possibly any exchange of communication) on the European Union,they couldn't be further apart or more polemic at times. I found myself in some arguments in my personal journal over the matter in the past few days,so it goes with politics and opinions.

Of course one can expect arguments over an an institution trying to unite so many different interests at once, and even more so in Europe that despite its common ground (literally and figuratively) has just as many inequalities of various character (economically mainly,to name a main source of disagreement),and centuries of war history that are still preferably used in arguments about National Identity (if that's not an out of date concept anyway) and cultural differences, to name just the top of the iceberg.A discussion in Margot Wallstroem's blog gives you and idea...

Before I digress into what I wanted to avoid due to lack of background knowledge - a philosophical discussion about the EU with myself - I think a brief introduction to the types of opinions/attitudes prevalent in the discussion around the EU is needed before introducing any blogs around the topic.

As it happens with labelling groups of people - you generalise - but I found wikipedia's distinctions of positions towards the EU quite useful to give an idea about "what is out there" ;)

Euroscepticism to begin with - which obviously speaks for itself, and is hardly to be distinguished from so-called Eurorealism,aka moderate Euroscepticism - other similar labels are Anti-European and Europhobes,all describing various degrees of an antomony to the following:

People broadly defined as Pro-Europeans - yet again in all their varying labels and degrees from Euro-Optimists to Europhiles.

To sum up their opposed positions in a (simplified) nutshell, Eurosceptics see their National sovereignty (economically,culturally etc) threatened by the European Union and regard the federal EU system as another step away from democracy towards a centrally controlled system that works in favour of global economics and bureaucracy; whereas Pro-Europeans think of a unite Europe as a stronger competitor in the global market,as well as, more idealistically, a sharing and exchanging society of people with common ground.

Hope that provided a bit of insight before I progress to list some blogs (I keep promising that,I know...everything at its time!)

P.S.:Check out my EU Observer newsticker on the right - very proud I found that (and managed to include it in my template)!

posted by Carina @ 7:35 pm