Difficult question to answer. Germany is an economic powerhouse, France isn't far behind but has a strong army (with its own nuclear deterrance) and a permanent seat in the US (for what it's worth). Other country like Italy must not be forgotten they're not far behind too. And the recent event showed us than central and eastern nation has a strong voice too. So I think EU has no clear leader, everyone matters and it's great.
The problem of having no clear leader is lack of initiative. The Russo-Ukrainian war has divided the course of action of the EU nations, leaving the ex-communist nations such as Poland and the Baltics to pursue a interventionist stance against Russia, whilst France and Germany prefer a diplomatic route. It's safe to say that there's no less than 5 completely different blocks within the EU, and all are completely different to their approach.
@@tyvamakes5226 That's just optics though. The council did act quickly, but the member countries are still free to advocate, bicker and act in addition. So Hungary goes against the grain, Poland shames Germany all day long and France tries to become mediator but all of them are under obligation to join the sanctions against Russia. Only way to rectify that is to condense power to a higher office, like the president of the EU parliament, but that opens another can of worms.
@@Elunayme There isn't really an one leader in the European Union, certainly decentralizing responsibility of power, but does leave dictatorial leaders like Viktor Orban with a greater leverage in the EU. Plus, a federal union between 27 different and assertive countries is always going to be a slow process. The United States has 50 states with similar cultures and general adherence to the Union above the state, yet it can take months before congress can act without external influence.
@@tyvamakes5226 You are dramatising. The EU acted in unity mostly, which is quite an accomplishment if you consider its diversity. Its leadership structure if that of any good democracy. It leads with consent of its memberstates and its people.
@@tyvamakes5226 The principle of unanimity needs to be removed, then the EU will unleash its full potential. Before that it is indeed, as you say, providing leverage for unilateral wishes and blackmail.
I think it is just like this. Competing groups of countries aligned on certain issues are continually trying to make their impact felt on EU policy, often with the need for big compromises. The German-French partnership is just the biggest and oldest of these arrangements.
Because Germany and France have a disproportionate influence according to population, the system is undemocratic unless equality is not a prerequisite for democracy. This is the same thing Europeans criticize America for.
@@the11382 Did you know that france and germany have disproportionally small influence on the EU due to the way seats are intentionally skewed towards smaller states?
@@broti705 No. These countries set ideas, agendas and treaties. "Merkel leader of the EU", "Macron new leader of the EU". I didn't get to elect these leaders yet they are supposed to make decisions about me.
Maybe it is one of the oldest, but the most powerful with the least amount of countries. Precursor partnerships to the EU are way older. E.g. Benelux-Scandinavian partnership in the 30ies. I would argue, that non of these partnerships are the oldest.
It's usually the Germans and the French but in truth, even thought they are the big players in the union, they can't get anything done unless there is enough support from enough other members, so even thought some members can guide the direction of the union, no individual member actually runs the union. With that said, bigger members like Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland are always going to have a bigger say based on their economics and population size and rightly so. In any case, there's always going to need enough broad support from big and small members to pass or block new laws and changes but with all that said, clearly the balance is shifting in favour of Germany and other more central European countries and mostly because of EU expansion which opens up more trade and other benefits with the eastern EU countries and it's usually always neighbouring countries that benefit the most, throw in that Brexit happened which is closer to France, it's easy to see how the balance can shift, but in the end, it doesn't really matter because there's always going to be a need for broad support to pass something and in that sense, no one country runs the EU, they all do. As for the vision for the EU, that's not going to be determine by any individual EU members and more likely to be determine outside powers like the US, China and a rising India, in other words, the EU will change in areas that it needs to do so they can better compete with them on the world stage, in other words, expect a lot more integration in key areas, regardless of wants, the alternative is that we get pushed aside by the other big powers around the world which could have a big negative impact on the economy, politics and even our social systems which I'm sure many of you know, the US and China would love to water them down, so yeah, expect more integration, not because we want it, but to protect our interest.
As a German, I just wished that Germany would have better relations to Poland. Problem is, politicians in Germany are quite left wing and politicians in Poland quite right wing so they don't really like each other. I think some years ago the bordering districts of Lubusz and Brandenburg tried to collaborate on some police law that would have enabled Polish police to operate in Brandenburg and German Police to operate in Lubusz but it failed because the national institutions didn't like that idea. (There was a lot of crime on both sides of the border and criminals could escape police by simply crossing the border.)
I'm from eastern EU and i think that if 2 different countries and former enemies can form a union, then there's nothing wrong with them assuming the informal leadership role. Its an example of compromise that the EU needs examples of. EU is a huge pot of mixed cultures and visions so in order for it to live in peace and stability, it needs compromise. And what better example for compromise than France and Germany. Moving forward however, they should be more open to advice from eastern block countries like Poland and Romania when it comes to dealing with Russia. They know whats up.
While eastern countries have very understandably strong stances against Russia, I don't think Germany, and especially France with its diplomatic stance, reacted all that bad when it comes to Russia. While countries like Poland and Romania acted very strongly against Russian invasion, I believe German and French diplomacy really helped avoiding to much of an energy crises compared to what could have happened, by keeping the gaz pipes opened for as long as they could. Howether, that does not mean they did nothing. I, for exemple, clearly remember how fast they acted to remove Russia from all banking systems, and quite illegally siezed any oligarch propriety in France for exemple (yacht, villas...), and that made quite a lot of noise. They also sent quite a lot of materials. However, as a French, I am quite disappointed for now for how little has been sent by France (officially), not just by its GDP equivalent, but also compared to other countries with a far smaller economic power, ie Romania and Poland. Diplomacy had its use in the beginning stages of the invasion, but maybe now its time for France and Germany to send more equipment than what would look good for the press.
@@vizender France didn't send much for 2 reasons First one is that France was and is upgrading all its military ressources, meaning they can only send few things that are still in service, like AMX10s or Ceasar canons (which was the most liked export the ukranian army had) Second is because the french equipement isn't designed for this type of warfare, or more precisely, the material France can send isn't designed for long term static warfare
@vizender EU isn't exactly what they appear to be. There's more corruption and favoritism. Game playing and stupidity. At the rate they're going, in no time at all, Europe/European countries will be so screwd up, that we no longer will have our own identity. Our countries are growing, developing and realizing what European Union stands for, and their actions speak even louder.
Following you for while now and I have to say, your production quality really improved! Especially your dynamic maps look fantastic & the inclusion of experts is adding significant contentual value. Great Job 👌🏻
Thank you! I intend on continuing with the expert interviews in the future :) It also makes researching videos more 'dynamic' rather than just reading papers/books in a basement. Cheers, Hugo
It makes me sad that somebody like Marine Le Pen, who openly says she wants to cut off all ties to germany entirely, is able concentrate such a high vote share on herself. I have always been proud of the german-french friendship. I have been in France several times through school partnership programs and also privately. I'm really sad that so many people in France don't share that emotion :(
We didn't voted for Le Pen for her ideas on Germany or EU We voted for her because everyone else is ok with letting French people being robbed, raped and killed in our streets in the name of multiculturalism or cheap labor. No more, no less. I will vote for Macron when he will have a clear solution about violence in French cities. In the mean time, I am sorry that Anti-EU people are getting voices, but that's the only way to make our elite do something.
Her father and her were rejected 8 times from the presidential seat for 2 decades. The last vote was supposed to be the last for her presidential ambitions. For the last few years she tried to sugar coat her ideas, change the name of her party, defend animal causes etc to get as many votes as possible for the wrong reasons, we all know how that worked out
Fantastic video, worthy of 1 million+ views. It's very exciting to see your Europe channel produce such good content for an under-served continent on UA-cam.
I don't think the Ukrainian war put in question the French idea of strategic autonomy, on the contrary. If europe had followed this strategy earlier it would have been easier to organize and send weapons to Ukraine and less rely on Russian or US energy as it is the case to day.
The United States is carrying the help to Ukraine though. Both militarily and civilian, no other country comes close to the amount the USA has helped and provided the Ukrainians to defend their nation.
We shouldn't be sending all those weapons & money to Ukraine. Half of the weapons get destroyed even before they reach the battlefield, and the other half is being sold on the black market. Ukraine is, and has always been, a center for black market arms trade, and the most corrupt country on the European continent. Add to that all the billions of dollars/euros we've sent them. And for what? Certainly not democracy...or freedom, security, peace,...or whatever empty, meaningless notion they mention. None of it is even remotely true. It's not to protect the Ukrainian people, because the exact opposite is clearly the case. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers die every day, fighting a war their own government started 8 years ago, backed by US/EU thugs with no regard for human life... A war they couldn't possibly win, ever.. And if that's not enough, now they're pushing Ukrainian women to join the cannon fodder that is the Ukrainian army. Top it off with the request of 750 billion dollars Elensky wants to "rebuild Ukraine". Ukraine is done for. Russia will rebuild the regions it now controls, with consent of the people in those regions. The Russians are seen as the LIBERATORS, not the occupiers or invaders. Only western MSM portays it that way in an attempt to convince us that we're on the good side of history. We're not...and haven't been for decades. BTW, how can we send even more money to Ukraine? The US/EU are broke AF. The people here will suffer coming winter...and next few years as well. If you still haven't figured out what's really going on, I suggest you start to a.s.a.p. because the people of the west are in great peril. Western society is on the brink of collapse, and what ensues, as planned, will mean the end of freedom for the people. You can see it easily, even today. You cannot afford to keep your head buried in the sand, thinking it'll all go away, or get better, all on it's own. WE can't afford so many people keeping their head buried deep inside their own ass, hoping for a savior to come and take us to a better future. There is NO savior, no shining knight on a white horse. The horse died years ago, and the shining knight has been bought by corporate interests and sold out the people he was supposed to protect. The game is coming to an end. Please open your dang eyes so we can unite against those trying to obtain absolute power over all our lives.
@@madsrolstad1664 Germany alone comes somewhat close to US in aid to Ukraine, per capita Germany has probably given equally or more. EU collectively has given more than US, especially when one considers refugees given asylum.
Problem is, Germany, and to a certain extent France, want their cake and eat it too. They want to trade with all the tyrants - Russia, China (and elsewhere) ... and not be responsible for any externalities of that trading relationship.
Hi from Germany and thank you for the video. Yes there will definintely more eastern influence with new members from the east joining. "Wandel durch Handel" has totally failed, you can't really change Russia and China 😬 I think we should listen more to the French in terms of strategic autonomy of the EU...
@@milschisch9604 What are you talking about? France has one of the best economic growth in the EU and employement is rising for a constant 2 years now... It has done much better during COVID than other coutnries as well... France's economy is far from crippling...
@@XR190190 It’s True. But you have to understand how France’s economy is growing. France uses debt to grow its economy and with a national debt of 98% from their GDP they won’t be able to sustain expenses much longer.
@@milschisch9604 Still not a good argument as the US or Japan have a much bigger %GDp debt and still sustain expenses... Because it is once again a multifactor that makes France a trustworthy economy
Fair point! Something interesting that I didn't include in the video is that for a long time there were actually more French speakers than German ones in the EU. Its only with the re-unification of Germany and Austria joining the EU that German became the most dominant language (as opposed to French which had France and Wallonia up until then). Cheers, Hugo
What? That literally isn’t true, and your statistics aren’t evidence for what you just claimed. More people might speak German as a ‘first’ language but 44% of EU citizens can speak English as a first, second, or third language. German is certainly not as widely known as English in the EU.
@@IntoEurope 44% of EU citizens can speak English as a first, second or third language. 36% of EU citizens can speak German as a first, second or third language. 29% of EU citizens can speak French as a first, second or third language. 18% of EU citizens can speak Italian as a first, second or third language. 17% of EU citizens can speak Spanish as a first, second or third language. He is incorrect.
As a german : Nonsense: The EU protects smaller countries and they can interfere and stop what they want. EG Hungary, Luxembourg,....this is why the Eu is so "popular" amongst small countries and they want to join the EU.
Great video as always, keep it up! ❤️🇪🇺 How I see it is that the seeming Franco-German hegemony is a direct consequence of a lack of clear (con)-federal structures in the EU, which allows those two countries to still use their power outside of the frame of the Union in order to influence decisions within it. But, as you pointed out, it’s only natural for the two biggest countries of the Union to have a heavier say on the matters (again, as long as there are no clear federal structures) since they’re the backbone of it. With the right reforms in the EU, we can ensure further equality among the various states. We have to transform it in such a way that the bigger countries cannot dominate and allow smaller countries to feel like they’re being treated unfairly. (This is kind of already the case, like for example a Maltese person’s vote in the EP has 5 times or something the power of a German person’s vote) Their astounding cooperation, though, can be used as a culprit for other countries that used to be enemies. The whole Franco-German axis thing should be seen more as something worthy to imitate rather than something to baselessly accuse of trying to conquer the Union.
@@IntoEurope Hey, The Visegrad group wasn't based around being an opposition to France and Germany. It was based around integration with the west and western institutions like NATO and the EU. The image of Visegrad being an opposition to Germany and France was made by Hungarian and Polish politicians after 2015, but Czechia and Slovakia aren't as near eurosceptic as Hungary and Poland. I'm just saying - as this institution by definition isn't at all what you described, it was made in 1991 while the rest you mentioned was made very recently and seemingly as an opposition to France and Germany. The newer Three seas initiative would fit much closer to your definition as Visegrad holds bigger value compared to the other newer ones, being the first post-communist western institution after the Warsaw pact for CEE countries.
But all of eat europe are beggar countrys. If they contribute to the eu then they can have more of a say. But as it stands they are nothing but parasites!
I find it weird how you say we should ensure further equality so that big countries don't treat unfairly small ones and give an example of how a small one is treating unfairly a big one. In reality a non-federal system benefits smaller countries more which is why they don't want to change the status quo even if it would benefit them but people only see the benefits they have, and assume all promises are false, especially in Easter Europe.
@@ipel4 Yeah, we’re saying the same thing. I should’ve clarified. I just wanted to highlight, with my example, that this perceived hegemony of the bigger states is only a stereotype, not based in reality. At least when we’re talking within the frame of the Union and its legal aspects. In fact, the opposite is true, since as you’ve already pointed out federal systems tend to favor smaller states. So it’s pretty disingenuous for some to accuse the bigger states of wanting to dominate the Union when they are the ones who are pushing for a federal system that will only weaken their influence and increase that of those who are complaining about being treated unfairly.
As a german I allways find it weird, why in all the news outlets you almost exlusivly you hear german or french opinion on EU Matter. Third in line is surprisingly allways that dude from Luxemburg, who shouldnt be of any importants. I think it would be much better to treat the EU members as equals (acording to size, fuck of Luxemburg) and also hear spanish and polish opinions and so on.
LOL We're giving our opinions about EU all the time but only reactions we get are articles about "Russian paranoia", "Neo-fascism" or "Breaking European Values".
Thanks! BTW a lot of news are changed. Like when few weeks ago, the leaders of Germany, Italy, France and Romania went to Kiev, the news around the world mentioned only the first three! And remember that not only Romania is important like Poland because we are the biggest and the most powerful in the east, but because after us they will be next. And beside this, Poland, Romania, Spain and Netherlands we are the only one who have anti nuclear shields
yes, that's true. My italian friend sent me news about this and they mentioned only the three states heads and I told him the Romanian president was there with them as well.
Countries ability to influence the UE block is a multi-tier reality : - in the first tiers, you have Germany and France (UK belonged to this tiers, but now, it's history). - in the second tier, you have Italy, Spain and Poland. - in the third tier, one can find Low Countries, Belgium and Sweden - afterwards, you have a motley group of moderate regional power countries such as Romania, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, Czechia, Hungary... and the very tiny but inflential Luxemburg.
EU represent US interest, EU doesn't care about European countries or it's people. That's obviously, responsible EU bureaucracy think doesn't understand what's going on. People understand EU obeys US, and has Already destroyed European countries when they followed US self-destructive decisions and sanctions against a country their own country and citizens depends on. EU playing a false game here, pretend all is good. Using media to pretend it's all okay. But EU completely destroyed European countries economy, they are creating a catastrophic disasters in Europe. In this winter people are going to freeze too death, when spring and summer are coming they created a huge food shortage in Europe. European countries where just going fine before EU decided to punish and weakening Russia economical and starting proxywar, what EU have done would definitely destroying Europe. And responsible politicians will never going to admit Any failure trying to weakening a country their own country and citizens completely depends on. EU also trying to fooling European citizens and says climate change are important, if climate are important. Why are they trying to weakening Russia who was delivered cheap gas directly from Russia through New Finnished North stream 2 pipeline ? EU said they would not be dependent on Russia, but choose to be dependent on expensive LPG gas and oil US. Shipped from the other side of the globe, when we know 15 huge ship's letting out more pollution than every car on the globe 🌎. ??? US command EU to not be dependent on cheap green gas straight from pipeline, US demand European countries to be dependent on dirty expensive LPG gas shipped from the other side of the globe to Europe ?? Everybody knows that will destroy Europe and climate even more, it will destroy Europe economy completely. US are not able to replace all cheap gas and oil from Russia with expensive dirty LPG gas and oil Europe would need, US are not able to deliver all cheap fertilizer with expensive fertilizer shipped from the other side of the globe. Let's see if US could deliver what European countries need, what about pollution from 100 huge ship's from the other side of the globe (US) to Europe. US demand to destroying Europe, EU collective agreed to do exactly that. Not Russia who are destroyed, EU are responsible for destroying Europe. European countries would collapse, because European weak leaders. Are no strong western leaders left who care about their own country and citizens, they are gone. US control EU, EU control all western leaders to do what best destroying their own country.
It seems like all you have done is look at a map and the size of the countries. The Netherlands actually has a larger economy than Poland and definitely has more influence in the EU. Just look at the history of EU policies. I’d say that the EU is leaded by it’s five largest economies: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
@@sdf6508 it still looks so wrong to see Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the cultural behemoths of Western Europe, leading without the UK. It should clearly be in that list to complete it. Will the EU ever heal and get its fundamental member back?
France is the most important country for Europe. It is the only country in Europe beside Russia which has independent space access, which it has donated to Europe by ESA ( European Space Agency ) of which France is still the largest contributor. France has the ability to independently develop every military hardware and does so, it is the only country in Europe whose military is totally independent of usa, it is a nuclear power, it is an energy exporter and ensures energy security of the entire Europe, it is simply legendary.
No, it isn't. It's just one important European state. Not even in a good shape now: with a high public debt (118% of GDP!), internal society conflicts and precarious presence in Africa. Countries like Germany, Italy and Spain have strong military industries. Fremm frigate ships and FSAF SAMP/T missile system (now used in Ukraine) are made in cooperation with Italy, not by France alone. Italy is talking to UK and Japan for next generation Tempest military aircraft, not to France and not even to Germany. Being an energy exporter is a good thing, but nuclear plants of France are old and half of reactors are currenty off-grid for maintenance. It's also a very vulnerable system: just a dry season and reactors must be stopped due to lack of cooling water. No, it's not the most important country of Europe and the emerging of Eastern Countries of Europe will diminish its role further, economically and even militarily.
@@maynamar2517 No it isn't. It's made by consortium Eurosam, of French and Italian companies: MBDA France (33,33%) MBDA Italy (33,33%) Thales Group (33,33%)
The bigger picture is that you cannot compare one country to another directly. Many regions in Germany are larger in both in population and economy than most European countries. Just compare eg. Bavaria alone has bigger economy and larger population than Hungary, Greece, Croatia, Czech, Slovakia etc. It is obvious that larger countries will take the lead
It is not obvious. Germany has a population of 83 million, making it the largest country in the EU by population. I think it is obvious that the other 364 million EU citizens do not want Germany to lead.
It's complicated. It should be mentioned, that the EU is a parliamentary institution with separate individual European parties. The party members can come from different European countries. So there is no single "German or French party". (you can have a democratic party with party members from Poland, France, Belgium etc. who all consider themselves democrats) Considering this, you can't just "block" an agenda for the goals of one individual country. It all boils down what European party you vote for and what interests this European party represents. That's why it seems to many people that the EU itself doesn't have a prominent goal, or feels like an empty shell, but in fact it's a broad compromise made by half a billion people. And the parliament is what drives the EU. Measured by the population Italy, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Czechia have a quite big weight in terms of the votes too. It shouldn't be neglected. There are so many member of the EU that there is no easy majority and it's hard to bend it in a way so it's the advantage of a single entity. And all of this is a good thing. It is in essence very democratic. Also the EU has no real president with an executive task. Perhaps that's why it feels like a headless organization. But it reinforces a more democratic nature. Democracy is sometimes slow and sometimes maybe complicated, but it respects most of it's members more than a single leader would do, even if he/she promises "easy solutions". Very often a thing is not the task of the EU, like for instance in many cases with certain foreign affairs. And very often in this case the individual country's politics of Germany or France is mixed up with EU politics, but are separate things.
EU represent US interest, EU doesn't care about European countries or it's people. That's obviously, responsible EU bureaucracy think doesn't understand what's going on. People understand EU obeys US, and has Already destroyed European countries when they followed US self-destructive decisions and sanctions against a country their own country and citizens depends on. EU playing a false game here, pretend all is good. Using media to pretend it's all okay. But EU completely destroyed European countries economy, they are creating a catastrophic disasters in Europe. In this winter people are going to freeze too death, when spring and summer are coming they created a huge food shortage in Europe. European countries where just going fine before EU decided to punish and weakening Russia economical and starting proxywar, what EU have done would definitely destroying Europe. And responsible politicians will never going to admit Any failure trying to weakening a country their own country and citizens completely depends on. EU also trying to fooling European citizens and says climate change are important, if climate are important. Why are they trying to weakening Russia who was delivered cheap gas directly from Russia through New Finnished North stream 2 pipeline ? EU said they would not be dependent on Russia, but choose to be dependent on expensive LPG gas and oil US. Shipped from the other side of the globe, when we know 15 huge ship's letting out more pollution than every car on the globe 🌎. ??? US command EU to not be dependent on cheap green gas straight from pipeline, US demand European countries to be dependent on dirty expensive LPG gas shipped from the other side of the globe to Europe ?? Everybody knows that will destroy Europe and climate even more, it will destroy Europe economy completely. US are not able to replace all cheap gas and oil from Russia with expensive dirty LPG gas and oil Europe would need, US are not able to deliver all cheap fertilizer with expensive fertilizer shipped from the other side of the globe. Let's see if US could deliver what European countries need, what about pollution from 100 huge ship's from the other side of the globe (US) to Europe. US demand to destroying Europe, EU collective agreed to do exactly that. Not Russia who are destroyed, EU are responsible for destroying Europe. European countries would collapse, because European weak leaders. Are no strong western leaders left who care about their own country and citizens, they are gone. US control EU, EU control all western leaders to do what best destroying their own country.
Nice video :). I think the EU could consider a tiered model, where some countries (e.g. France, Germany , Benelux, etc.) Integrate more closely while other countries don't. Currently, with the VETO vote in the Council each country can stop EU foreign policy legislation making things very difficult. Macron mentioned something like this yesterday... Interesting times ahead
@isle9 that will require treaty change though... So maybe in 10 years. And do you think Viktor Orban will allow that to happen? I reckon he will VETO ;)
I think that's kinda what Emmanuel Macron wants when he says "Europe à deux vitesses" which literally means two speeds Europe ('s adhesion), would be great
I think if it comes down to this, we better simply brake the EU along the lines of Soviet occupation. It is clear that if the Veto goes away and we adopt a two thier adhesion policy, we should simply revert back the 2004 extension because it is clear we don't share that much anymore.
Germany has a larger population and economy while France has nukes, a strong military and footholds all around the globe as well as the second largest EEZ in the world. They complete each other quite perfectly.
We are 27 countries involved, so we decide at 27. The goal of the EU is to protect our interests, not to sacrifice something for the others. If a country disagree, he can block a decision (or negociate to have something in exchange). It's not perfect, of course, but we advance together as an emerging superpower. And once we achieve to have this status : peace, stability and prosperity on our soil will be secured for decades, or even centuries.
@@ZERO-tv5zg peace could be, but here is the thing. As long as the EU is small, we have no wars against us, but against other countrys. As the Border expands, we are getting farer away and can't save us against others that good. And tention in our own lands will rise. The EU wouldn't be a country. It would be an empire. And as we grow, we need to choose if some countrys are on this side of the border or on the other. As empires are getting bigger, they start to fall, because nobody can rule so much and not everybody likes everybody the same way. Imagine you are in spain: If war is in france, you should be alarmed, because you would be next in line, but if war is in finnland, you wouldn't care the same way. Every country has that one best friend, but not everybody can be best friends.
EU represent US interest, EU doesn't care about European countries or it's people. That's obviously, responsible EU bureaucracy think doesn't understand what's going on. People understand EU obeys US, and has Already destroyed European countries when they followed US self-destructive decisions and sanctions against a country their own country and citizens depends on. EU playing a false game here, pretend all is good. Using media to pretend it's all okay. But EU completely destroyed European countries economy, they are creating a catastrophic disasters in Europe. In this winter people are going to freeze too death, when spring and summer are coming they created a huge food shortage in Europe. European countries where just going fine before EU decided to punish and weakening Russia economical and starting proxywar, what EU have done would definitely destroying Europe. And responsible politicians will never going to admit Any failure trying to weakening a country their own country and citizens completely depends on. EU also trying to fooling European citizens and says climate change are important, if climate are important. Why are they trying to weakening Russia who was delivered cheap gas directly from Russia through New Finnished North stream 2 pipeline ? EU said they would not be dependent on Russia, but choose to be dependent on expensive LPG gas and oil US. Shipped from the other side of the globe, when we know 15 huge ship's letting out more pollution than every car on the globe 🌎. ??? US command EU to not be dependent on cheap green gas straight from pipeline, US demand European countries to be dependent on dirty expensive LPG gas shipped from the other side of the globe to Europe ?? Everybody knows that will destroy Europe and climate even more, it will destroy Europe economy completely. US are not able to replace all cheap gas and oil from Russia with expensive dirty LPG gas and oil Europe would need, US are not able to deliver all cheap fertilizer with expensive fertilizer shipped from the other side of the globe. Let's see if US could deliver what European countries need, what about pollution from 100 huge ship's from the other side of the globe (US) to Europe. US demand to destroying Europe, EU collective agreed to do exactly that. Not Russia who are destroyed, EU are responsible for destroying Europe. European countries would collapse, because European weak leaders. Are no strong western leaders left who care about their own country and citizens, they are gone. US control EU, EU control all western leaders to do what best destroying their own country.
Why France and Germany? In the EU there were 4 big countries: France, Germany, Italy and the UK. The UK was a member of the EU for the money and not the idea. That is why we had Brexit. Italy is harder to explain, but the Italian politics are... very Italian. Since 1945, Italy had 69 governments with an average lifespan of just over 1 year. Then you have the smaller big countries: Spain and Poland. S pain was a dictatorship until Franco's death in 1975. In 1981 there was a failed military coup attempt. The EU brought stability to Spain and not reverse. Poland was in a similar position. In 1989 Poland had it's own peaceful anti-communist revolution. Political stability is important, but there is another factor. Diplomatic staff is needed for negotiations at the highest level. Countries that had a revolution need it capable staff to build up their own country and not the EU. The need to build an internal network befor they can build a diplomatic netwerk. Then you have a country like The Netherlands. It is the biggest of the smaller countries (or the smallest of the bigger?). The Dutch and the Benelux countries as a whole are important. The Benelux itself was/is a lab to test unification. A lot of European treaties are signed in the low countries. Brussels is the centrum of the EU for a reason. I'm pretty sure a lot of Franco-German solutions were backed by the work of diplomats from the low countries. A lot of the EU treaties have names of Dutch cities. Germany and France can be leaders in the EU, however Benelux often deliver the actual leaders of the EU institutions. Why France and Germany? Well there was nobody else that can play that role. That can change, the EU was for a long time a Western European Union. Now the intrests of the EU are a lot more Eastern. Ukraine as an EU member could be interesting, as a Poland has a better network in that part of Europe than a France or Germany.
@@francisbell1961 south and north will divide more. But lets be honest the divides are mostly etnic and cultural anyways. There is no denying that we have a Germanic, Latin and Slavic division in the EU. It somehow comes out in culture, upbringing, way of thinking, I dont know what.
Suggesting that France has a significant edge politically, or Germany economically, is simplistic and flat out wrong. Both are powerhouses politically and economically. But together, they form a union behind only to the US and China. With those two at the core of the EU, the Union remains relevant and all members of the DU benefit.
The BENELUX was the first cooperation between European countries combining resources. Not Germany and France. The Netherlands is also been in the headlines a lot for supporting Ukraine lately.
I can't believe the UK was once a member of the EU and didn't seizes this opportunity to be a leader member of this union... These 3 big countries united in this organization, it was beautiful... As a French, I still believe in the EU, I still believe in the old continent 🇪🇺
Absolutely true! Furthermore we wouldn't have our classical nationalism problems that could form. Very interesting idea. For those who are interested in the concept en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_United_States_of_Europe,_A_Eurotopia%3F
Neither Germany nor France or even both together could make politics without the help of their fellow European neighbours. And that is good. As a German I support the idea of a decentralized form of state just like it is within Germany. Only by consensus and dialogue we will find the best solutions for the problems of our time. What single voices lead can to can be seen in fucked up Russia or other shitty places in the world.
what a france-germany-centric way of looking at the inception of the EU. I understand that focusing on the lock instead of the key is appealing. The key is small right? But it seems like we forget that the benelux was the inspiration and source for all of this. Small countries that punch way above their weight. Enjoy the freedom and prosperity we provided for you while you focus on land-mass and large-population-countries. - Kisses.
I’m French but we must not forget the importance of Italy yes they have issues with their economy right now but Italy will always remain as one of the biggest powerhouse country in the world. Spain has also made a lot of improvement since the dictatorship felt down in the 50’s. Altought I would say than Germany and France have both their own importance. Germany has the leadership as the economic powerhouse of the continent but France has the leadership as the military powerhouse. As I don’t see France being capable of overtake Germany in economic prospect but I think Germany will soon has a strong army and France may loose this military leadership.
France has both military and diplomatic leadership actually, and it willl stay that way since they got their own nukes and while Germany will catch up in its military France would still have the bigger tools, and France does have the Permanent security member place at the UN, which is more used as the EU security member than solely France these days especially since the idea of making the EU or Germany as permanent member failed though im not too knowledgeable bout it. So its not like France is going to lose its edge over Germany anyway. Though not a single member state can actually afford to try and "rule" EU alone anyway
In May 1945, Russian music was playing in all cafes and restaurants in Berlin. Go to Berlin, Paris, Rome, Brussels, London or any city in the EU today and listen to whose music is being played. Then it will be clear to you who actually leads the European Union.
I don't get it, do u mean like the US?? But btw, in italy we lostrn to italian music, because not everyone speaks English and we have very good music tradition and many competitions.
@@mattia8327 Of course, brother. I used the example with music only as an allegory. Of course, not only American music is listened to, but domestic music as well. The point is that these "Does Germany or France lead the EU" topics are trivial. If the EU does what the US says, then who leads the EU is not overly important.
@@adrien5116 it is a bit hypocritical though. As long as the French are on top, everything was great and nothing had to change. Reunification was absolutely vital for the german nation and is deeply ingrained in our consciousness. The partition of Germany, more than anything else, was the deepest and longest lasting wound from the Second World War. If there had been a third war, the Germans would have had to kill each other, perhaps perishing as a nation and people entirely. The French are known to make political jokes and that is fine, but especially in this case, it is important that no German can appreciate that particular one. Too much was at stake. Nothing was better, when there were two Germanies. Five hundred thousand soviet troups were in East Germany, people were literally sold to the West for currency, thousands were detained or tortured and the next war loomed like a promise of apocalypse over both. With the reunification of Germany the last wound healed out and a potential apocalypse was averted. I am not trying to overdramatize(though I probably seem like it), but I advise you not to make that joke in front of a German, especially if he is a bit older. He will feel irritated
Regarding recent events of the war in Ukraine I think Poland would be a great addition to this duality once it's supporting values of the EU (abortion rights & independent supreme court) again. Romanic, Germanic and Slavic cultures have to be unified for a working European entity.
@@alejandroojeda1572 Romance, romanic or romanesque - doesn’t make a difference. But you’re right, although it’s a Latin culture as well I don’t mean Romanian in this case :)
Yeah, but like you said, Poland has to make the right steps in the near future. The polish society is deeply divided between liberal EU supporters and conservative Poland first-PIS supporters. And the populist government has undermined the democracy and judiciary. That's not a good foundation for anything at all.
With the UK out of the picture (for now) it's up to Italy, Spain and Poland as the next largest countries to start a more proactive role in the union. I'd really like to see more cooperation and integration so not every decision depends on France and Germany. Poland may have some issues but if it can adopt a constructive political stance towards the EU the potential is huge, especially since the current focus of the EU is towards the east.
As a small correction to "germany is slow at delivering support to ukraine". Germany is the second largest donator to ukraine behind the USA. And alot of the contributions of countries like Poland, Czech Republic, Denmark etc are financed by germany.
@@pep-qew example: Poland delivers 50 T-72M1´s from their long term storage. Afterwards they file a request to the EU Aid Fund for financial compensation. Or germany pays for the stuff directly, like with the danish M113 APC´s, Leo1A5DK´s and many other pieces of equipment as agreed with the relevant partners. Germany shouldered the fnancial burdon of quite a large amount of such deliveries from EU partners. Fun Fact: poland filed requests for more than double the compensation amount it even delivered. (A T-72M1 has a market value of about 500k$ when in top condition. Poland delivered 300 of them plus a few other things and filed requests for 3.3b$)
In which war? In the napoleonic then yes obviously and rightly. They didn't in the Franco Prussian war. And what bearing does this have on anything related in this video?
@@hansgruber788 its this retared-ass conspiracy theory that the Anglos (Brits and Now Americas) are behind every problem ever in European History, Especially over the last 300 years. They Caused the Napoleonic Wars (The American Ideological Export, the British Provocation, and Financing etc) They Caused the Franco-Prussian Wars (I dont know, the Rothschilds or something about American Banks or something) They Caused the World Wars (British Playing of continental Powers against each other and American Selling Arms to both Sides) But anyone with even a slight degree of historical understanding can see that these are super reductive claims that dont even hold up when the evidence is truly examined. It's just a way to rag on the Anglos
EU represent US interest, EU doesn't care about European countries or it's people. That's obviously, responsible EU bureaucracy think doesn't understand what's going on. People understand EU obeys US, and has Already destroyed European countries when they followed US self-destructive decisions and sanctions against a country their own country and citizens depends on. EU playing a false game here, pretend all is good. Using media to pretend it's all okay. But EU completely destroyed European countries economy, they are creating a catastrophic disasters in Europe. In this winter people are going to freeze too death, when spring and summer are coming they created a huge food shortage in Europe. European countries where just going fine before EU decided to punish and weakening Russia economical and starting proxywar, what EU have done would definitely destroying Europe. And responsible politicians will never going to admit Any failure trying to weakening a country their own country and citizens completely depends on. EU also trying to fooling European citizens and says climate change are important, if climate are important. Why are they trying to weakening Russia who was delivered cheap gas directly from Russia through New Finnished North stream 2 pipeline ? EU said they would not be dependent on Russia, but choose to be dependent on expensive LPG gas and oil US. Shipped from the other side of the globe, when we know 15 huge ship's letting out more pollution than every car on the globe 🌎. ??? US command EU to not be dependent on cheap green gas straight from pipeline, US demand European countries to be dependent on dirty expensive LPG gas shipped from the other side of the globe to Europe ?? Everybody knows that will destroy Europe and climate even more, it will destroy Europe economy completely. US are not able to replace all cheap gas and oil from Russia with expensive dirty LPG gas and oil Europe would need, US are not able to deliver all cheap fertilizer with expensive fertilizer shipped from the other side of the globe. Let's see if US could deliver what European countries need, what about pollution from 100 huge ship's from the other side of the globe (US) to Europe. US demand to destroying Europe, EU collective agreed to do exactly that. Not Russia who are destroyed, EU are responsible for destroying Europe. European countries would collapse, because European weak leaders. Are no strong western leaders left who care about their own country and citizens, they are gone. US control EU, EU control all western leaders to do what best destroying their own country.
Unfortunately, our (EU) role is getting closer to Arabian Gulf's role - "Pay to the US, and shush." When we were given a little space to express ourselves like a month after the Russian invasion, we started challenging each other's views and weren't united in any way. Let us see how the situation around EU MSs will resolve, but I don't see it much positively.
EU represent US interest, EU doesn't care about European countries or it's people. That's obviously, responsible EU bureaucracy think doesn't understand what's going on. People understand EU obeys US, and has Already destroyed European countries when they followed US self-destructive decisions and sanctions against a country their own country and citizens depends on. EU playing a false game here, pretend all is good. Using media to pretend it's all okay. But EU completely destroyed European countries economy, they are creating a catastrophic disasters in Europe. In this winter people are going to freeze too death, when spring and summer are coming they created a huge food shortage in Europe. European countries where just going fine before EU decided to punish and weakening Russia economical and starting proxywar, what EU have done would definitely destroying Europe. And responsible politicians will never going to admit Any failure trying to weakening a country their own country and citizens completely depends on. EU also trying to fooling European citizens and says climate change are important, if climate are important. Why are they trying to weakening Russia who was delivered cheap gas directly from Russia through New Finnished North stream 2 pipeline ? EU said they would not be dependent on Russia, but choose to be dependent on expensive LPG gas and oil US. Shipped from the other side of the globe, when we know 15 huge ship's letting out more pollution than every car on the globe 🌎. ??? US command EU to not be dependent on cheap green gas straight from pipeline, US demand European countries to be dependent on dirty expensive LPG gas shipped from the other side of the globe to Europe ?? Everybody knows that will destroy Europe and climate even more, it will destroy Europe economy completely. US are not able to replace all cheap gas and oil from Russia with expensive dirty LPG gas and oil Europe would need, US are not able to deliver all cheap fertilizer with expensive fertilizer shipped from the other side of the globe. Let's see if US could deliver what European countries need, what about pollution from 100 huge ship's from the other side of the globe (US) to Europe. US demand to destroying Europe, EU collective agreed to do exactly that. Not Russia who are destroyed, EU are responsible for destroying Europe. European countries would collapse, because European weak leaders. Are no strong western leaders left who care about their own country and citizens, they are gone. US control EU, EU control all western leaders to do what best destroying their own country.
Honestly, as a Central European, I'd rather listen to the US, a country that managed to keep Europe peaceful and freed us from communism, than some European corrupted and ideological bureaucrats (It's hard to even call them leaders) I prefer Europe controlled by the US, than controlled by Franco-German progressive elite that is completely detached from reality of most of the continent.
7:10 "Other countries have found coalitions with superheroes sounding names like..." "the new hanseatic league" "The visegrad group" Bruh, someone's forgetting their history it seems
The Franco-German relationship is the core idea of Europe. Merge your economies to make wars im possible. Share common international institutions ,the EU, in order to solve disputs diplomatically. It's today's recipe for peace and coorperation on the European continent. The EU itself is the realization of this idea on a continental scale.
these are the nations who make the major proposals, then there's unofficial need of approval from italy, spain and poland, then comes the round of critic from Hungary and the nordics before finally being put for a vote
I disagree, the European experiment was always under the protection of American arms. The war in Ukraine shows that without the American presence Europe would just collapse to outside pressures.
@@heartsofiron4ever Exactly. Germany doesn't deserve to be a leader and soon we will find out who's the boss in house. We need like 5 more years. Greeting's from Poland.
@@heartsofiron4ever We don't care about quantity, only quality. And how do you feel about safety on the streets and Christmas markets after letting in uncontrolled numbers of blacks? Just don't say that they will do anything other than sit on welfare, sell drugs to kids or stab people. hahah. Spass bei Seite, we need to be good Neighbours. Hail Hydra.
Small correction : The Benelux (Belgium, Nederland and Luxemebourg) "customs convention" came before (1947) and was therefore a form of origin of the Coal and Steel community.
I am not European or an expert on EU. But in terms of leadership when I think of the European Union, France and Germany always come up, It has privileged positions in the main organizations and for many historical issues such as imperialism, revolutions, cultural influences, despite Spain, Italy and Greece also have some relevance in this regard. And with the Brexit this became more evident.
You should check how the structure of the Eu actually works. There’s no favourites. Germany and France seem more privileged because they’re the one who speaker louder and are one of the highest net positive contributors. Realistically tho even together they can’t pass anything without support of other members
What about countries like Italy or Spain,these states could be an important voice in the EU,as a counter weight for the french-german partnership.shifting some decisitions making to the mediterranean sea.
Not all countries want to take the responsibility of being de facto leaders or top representatives of the block. Its unwritten but known that Germany expands their influence eastwards while France expands their influence southwards to Latin Europe (Spain, Italy) and Africa.
@@vinhbao9738 Yes,not all countries wants to take responsability for the rest of the members states but as I said states like Italy or Spain could act as a counter weight giving more decision making to the south,a few days ago I was reading an article about the G4 in the EU:Germany,Italy,Spain and France,this approach reinforce the influence of Spain and Italy.
@@marcos.2373 Mi permetta di correggerla, la Francia ha un territorio che si estende per quasi 650000 km quadrati, mentre l'Italia "soltanto" 301000 km quadrati
Isn’t that the beauty about the EU. No country is the leader. Every country is dependent on another. One way or the other way. That’s a union slow, but also quite resilient. That’s doesn’t make the EU a superlative, but solid foundation for a free world. The best of everything…
“I love Germany so much I’m happy there are two of them”: although said by a Nobel Prize laureate, this phrase sounds either remarkably dumb or evil-minded. I assume he loved France even more, nevertheless I bet he would not have liked it to have been split in three. A post-war scenario with three Frances seems catastrophic, not enchanting, right?
I hope we get better defensive measures. NATO is great, but the EU could do much better. So far, I feel like we're going in the right direction,but only time will tell
I don't think there is gona be an enlargement any time soon. They gave Ukraine and Moldova a candidate status for the show but it means nothing. We can't accept anymore members as long as we didn't solve our problem, just few days ago Hungary blocked a global minimum tax plan wanted by all others members, it's absurd, one country should not be able to block all the others, we have to solve this if it's still possible before considering adding more countries.
@@alexp6013 Defensive against what? I want a defense against the banks and the multinational corporations... the things that the EU defends more than anything else.
This video shows what is always obvious around debates about the EU. It's antecedents, the common market et al brought peace and prosperity to Europe. The EU and the concept of ever closer union brings friction.
Videos are getting better with each upload, like other comments the two biggest countries have a bigger say on how the EU is run. It is really great to see representatives of the EU providing information to video's subject.
The question is, can France and Germany somehow slowly take the lead back and implement it as a key EU function? Germany tried to take over Europe twice with military force. Why not take it over peacefully with politics and back up that power with France's military power? Both countries clearly want to shape the EU to their liking. What is stopping them from beeing less suttle about it? Poland gained alot of influence with the war in Ukraine. Everyone now follows their bidding, as long as the war is going. But if both countries succeed in retaining Polands power after the war, there should not be too much compitition yet, especially with GB gone. Edit: I am ignoring ethics because they are subjective and usually thrown out of the window in politics anyway.
The New Hanseatic league has a GDP per Capita of €50,000, well above the EU average. Ireland is also pushing for non-EU but wealthy EFTA countries Norway and Iceland to be part of it or some kind of semi-members. Both have shown interest.
This video discounts the British Effect on the EU leadership. It was the Big 3. Britain had a significant shift on both France and Germany and their relationship to each other and elsewhere.
Yes that is a fair point and something that I left out of the video. My understanding currently is that Britain actually served to balance the relationship in France's favour and their leaving is just another factor in the relationship being unbalanced nowadays. Additionally Britain never looked for the pro-eminent role that Germany has by default or that France is actually looking for. Another thing to mentions is that by looking solely at the French German partnership it also minimizes the role of the other member states in decision making. Thanks for your comment! Cheers, Hugo
The EU has the least amount of bureaucrats per Captia. 60K Employee for 447 Million Citizen. Tell me one country - besides North Korea - where lobbyist do not want to make influence?
Easy answer,both Germany,and France supported by their sidekicks,Belguim,spain,Luxembourg, Ireland.European union controlled by an awful lot of back scratching.
I notice in the video and comments, there is little mention of either Spain or Portugal. Out of curiosity, are they not major players in this particular game???
This is because Spain is the size of Poland not Italy. Regarding Portugal... it is smaller than Sweden and the average salary is smaller than in Slovenia.
E.U should transform itself as a Federation and being called "United States of Europe" only composed with: France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Austria. The rest of the European countries would be part of a very close relationship with the United States of Europe and would remain in the NATO but won't have the Euro €.
That's the best solution For now it should form a small nation composing of Germany, Netherlands, France, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and maybe Denmark. Then once that is succefull then we can get Spain, Portugal, Italy, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Slovenia next into the EU.
@@SuperWiggler Because this Federation would be only composed by the richest European countries. UK was tired to pay for poor countries and saw nothing to gain in the EU.
@@cqpp I believe that Italy too would join right away as we are one of the main creators of the EU. In the past we wanted to enter the MGCS (European MBT) project but France kicked us out for who knows what reason ... We are still a long way from a united Europe. We want to create from 2025 the first Europe brigade made up of 5000 soldiers but we have not yet united the EU from a linguistic, monetary and military industrial point of view.
@@cqpp Now we need to worry about the next Italian votes to be held in September. If the Right (Giorgia Meloni) wins, something bad could happen. I believe it will allow the Fascists to celebrate the centenary of the march on Rome.
Some interesting opinion: if Ukraine joined EU, with its somewhat high population, it would undermine Franco-German hegemony, therefore they are likely not keen on this possibility until they secure enough power for the future.
germany doesnt want to rule so blocking any country from joining the eu is out of the question for us. in fact the german government wants ukraine to join based on its importance as a future trading partner of natural gas.
This sounds simple & direct... Let France take the lead in the EU military role while Germany takes the lead in the EU economic role. Quite symbiotic yeah?
I think France has much more potential than Germany when it comes to leadership. Germany has failed to manage properly every single issue they tackled.
Merkel is gone now. When Scholz became chancellor I thought, there wouldn't be much change, but I was quite suprised. He handles the Ukraine crisis quite ok. Like way better than expected.
@@Skyl3t0n well im pretty sure even Merkel wouldve given funding to the military if an invasion happened on the doorstep of Europe, but true enough he handles the crisis decently
Like what "potential "? Like almost Voting for a presidential candidate who wants to end the Union and install a kind of 19th Century Nationalism? I do not see where Germany has "failed" besides that strategic Issue falling for russian energy. Poland / UK for instead joined a bs War in Iraq with the US which has not only murdered Million Peoples but also destabilized our European Backyard for 20 Years and created a big mess and terror till today. How many of these Iraq/ Syrian "Issues" the UK and Poland took as the they reached our European borders and ask for help?
@@Skyl3t0n I have to agree, Scholz is actually a decent chancellor, but I still kind of think he should have instantly positioned himself like the Green party did.
There is lot of misconception about EU. People think it was born because of France and Germany when it was born actually because of Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy and also Germany and France. Six countries
Short anwer: the capitalists of the EU are the ones who rule, and France and Germany have the most and the richest capitalists so they are the countries that lead.
Ironic that since defeating France at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the defeat of Germany in 1945, both these countries would still end up leading Europe.
@@IntoEurope It is obvious then why you think this way. Do you know which country is the biggest net contributor to the EU? Just think and study before you answer. It is not France or Germany.
Netherlands are so "big" for gdp per capita because they are a TAX HAVEN, who have a cunning strategy for attracting the multinational companies to be relocated to Holland and pay less taxes there, thus literally stealing dozens of billions euros each year to other european "brothers".
We in Poland still have in mind that Germans are singing in their 5th verse of their anthem: Great Germany, from the Meuse to the Neman. Check out where Neman river is laying!
Germany leads the EU. US also has control over many EU affairs and even Germany cant object there. France can have some influence every now and then, provided that Germany is not strongly against whatever the French want to do. Everyone else, waits for the decisions and falls in line. UK also used to have some influence but they left.
Ironically France shines whenever the US "controll" the EU since Germany doesnt really speak against the US, France doenst care much if it goes against what it wants zt least to a bigger extand
We also remember who stoped us from spliting germany in diferent state because they wanted a string germany to mantained a balance of power on the continent.
I’ll second a lots of comments here. The only power that matters for all EU citizens is the EU institutions such as the EU parliament. We need EU parties and EU legislation directly from our MEPs with a governing body picked among elected officials at the EU level.
@@gordonchild273 Yeah that's the only big US bought thing. But we both know that it was Germany's last choice that it wanted to do. I mean they *must* have a jet that is capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
@@duwang8499 The Rafale can also carry nuclear weapons, but then I know that behind these military contracts there are also diplomacy, trade and other aspects to take into account. However, European countries should support their own industries first, in particular to maintain know-how and a healthy economy. Germany makes the best tanks, France excellent planes, Italy frigates etc etc.
Difficult question to answer. Germany is an economic powerhouse, France isn't far behind but has a strong army (with its own nuclear deterrance) and a permanent seat in the US (for what it's worth). Other country like Italy must not be forgotten they're not far behind too. And the recent event showed us than central and eastern nation has a strong voice too.
So I think EU has no clear leader, everyone matters and it's great.
The problem of having no clear leader is lack of initiative. The Russo-Ukrainian war has divided the course of action of the EU nations, leaving the ex-communist nations such as Poland and the Baltics to pursue a interventionist stance against Russia, whilst France and Germany prefer a diplomatic route.
It's safe to say that there's no less than 5 completely different blocks within the EU, and all are completely different to their approach.
@@tyvamakes5226 That's just optics though. The council did act quickly, but the member countries are still free to advocate, bicker and act in addition. So Hungary goes against the grain, Poland shames Germany all day long and France tries to become mediator but all of them are under obligation to join the sanctions against Russia.
Only way to rectify that is to condense power to a higher office, like the president of the EU parliament, but that opens another can of worms.
@@Elunayme There isn't really an one leader in the European Union, certainly decentralizing responsibility of power, but does leave dictatorial leaders like Viktor Orban with a greater leverage in the EU.
Plus, a federal union between 27 different and assertive countries is always going to be a slow process. The United States has 50 states with similar cultures and general adherence to the Union above the state, yet it can take months before congress can act without external influence.
@@tyvamakes5226 You are dramatising. The EU acted in unity mostly, which is quite an accomplishment if you consider its diversity. Its leadership structure if that of any good democracy. It leads with consent of its memberstates and its people.
@@tyvamakes5226 The principle of unanimity needs to be removed, then the EU will unleash its full potential. Before that it is indeed, as you say, providing leverage for unilateral wishes and blackmail.
I think it is just like this. Competing groups of countries aligned on certain issues are continually trying to make their impact felt on EU policy, often with the need for big compromises. The German-French partnership is just the biggest and oldest of these arrangements.
Because Germany and France have a disproportionate influence according to population, the system is undemocratic unless equality is not a prerequisite for democracy. This is the same thing Europeans criticize America for.
@@the11382 Did you know that france and germany have disproportionally small influence on the EU due to the way seats are intentionally skewed towards smaller states?
@@broti705 No. These countries set ideas, agendas and treaties. "Merkel leader of the EU", "Macron new leader of the EU". I didn't get to elect these leaders yet they are supposed to make decisions about me.
@@the11382 Always glad to inform
Maybe it is one of the oldest, but the most powerful with the least amount of countries. Precursor partnerships to the EU are way older. E.g. Benelux-Scandinavian partnership in the 30ies. I would argue, that non of these partnerships are the oldest.
We all know that the real answer is Andorra 😎🇦🇩
Our generous overlords, the Andorrans 🇦🇩
I for one welcome our cheap alcohol overlords
Visca Andorra
Nononono, you completely forgot Liechtenstein, the only true capital of the whole world! :D
And the Vatican for the religious thingies...
@@juliane__ you are also missing San Marino XD
The 4 secret powerhouse behind us all u.u XD
It's usually the Germans and the French but in truth, even thought they are the big players in the union, they can't get anything done unless there is enough support from enough other members, so even thought some members can guide the direction of the union, no individual member actually runs the union.
With that said, bigger members like Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland are always going to have a bigger say based on their economics and population size and rightly so.
In any case, there's always going to need enough broad support from big and small members to pass or block new laws and changes but with all that said, clearly the balance is shifting in favour of Germany and other more central European countries and mostly because of EU expansion which opens up more trade and other benefits with the eastern EU countries and it's usually always neighbouring countries that benefit the most, throw in that Brexit happened which is closer to France, it's easy to see how the balance can shift, but in the end, it doesn't really matter because there's always going to be a need for broad support to pass something and in that sense, no one country runs the EU, they all do.
As for the vision for the EU, that's not going to be determine by any individual EU members and more likely to be determine outside powers like the US, China and a rising India, in other words, the EU will change in areas that it needs to do so they can better compete with them on the world stage, in other words, expect a lot more integration in key areas, regardless of wants, the alternative is that we get pushed aside by the other big powers around the world which could have a big negative impact on the economy, politics and even our social systems which I'm sure many of you know, the US and China would love to water them down, so yeah, expect more integration, not because we want it, but to protect our interest.
It’s actually Franco German who lead Europe 🇪🇺🇨🇵🇩🇪
@@christophermichaelclarence6003 nope :)
E.u is how the u.s started
@@theazamatk Yes
Poland ?
I am from Poland, and looking at germany and france. I just like the fact of what they've created. It's better to be friends, than to be enemies.
@@BocaoZwow bruh where the hate come from?
Germany sends us their trash to burn then call themselves eco friendly
As a German, I just wished that Germany would have better relations to Poland. Problem is, politicians in Germany are quite left wing and politicians in Poland quite right wing so they don't really like each other. I think some years ago the bordering districts of Lubusz and Brandenburg tried to collaborate on some police law that would have enabled Polish police to operate in Brandenburg and German Police to operate in Lubusz but it failed because the national institutions didn't like that idea.
(There was a lot of crime on both sides of the border and criminals could escape police by simply crossing the border.)
CZ here. I just pray for unification and total integration of my country into the block
@@gamerdrache6076 lol fr germany is a puppet of france
I'm from eastern EU and i think that if 2 different countries and former enemies can form a union, then there's nothing wrong with them assuming the informal leadership role. Its an example of compromise that the EU needs examples of. EU is a huge pot of mixed cultures and visions so in order for it to live in peace and stability, it needs compromise. And what better example for compromise than France and Germany.
Moving forward however, they should be more open to advice from eastern block countries like Poland and Romania when it comes to dealing with Russia. They know whats up.
While eastern countries have very understandably strong stances against Russia, I don't think Germany, and especially France with its diplomatic stance, reacted all that bad when it comes to Russia. While countries like Poland and Romania acted very strongly against Russian invasion, I believe German and French diplomacy really helped avoiding to much of an energy crises compared to what could have happened, by keeping the gaz pipes opened for as long as they could.
Howether, that does not mean they did nothing. I, for exemple, clearly remember how fast they acted to remove Russia from all banking systems, and quite illegally siezed any oligarch propriety in France for exemple (yacht, villas...), and that made quite a lot of noise. They also sent quite a lot of materials. However, as a French, I am quite disappointed for now for how little has been sent by France (officially), not just by its GDP equivalent, but also compared to other countries with a far smaller economic power, ie Romania and Poland. Diplomacy had its use in the beginning stages of the invasion, but maybe now its time for France and Germany to send more equipment than what would look good for the press.
@@vizender France didn't send much for 2 reasons
First one is that France was and is upgrading all its military ressources, meaning they can only send few things that are still in service, like AMX10s or Ceasar canons (which was the most liked export the ukranian army had)
Second is because the french equipement isn't designed for this type of warfare, or more precisely, the material France can send isn't designed for long term static warfare
@vizender EU isn't exactly what they appear to be. There's more corruption and favoritism. Game playing and stupidity. At the rate they're going, in no time at all, Europe/European countries will be so screwd up, that we no longer will have our own identity. Our countries are growing, developing and realizing what European Union stands for, and their actions speak even louder.
Following you for while now and I have to say, your production quality really improved! Especially your dynamic maps look fantastic & the inclusion of experts is adding significant contentual value. Great Job 👌🏻
Thank you! I intend on continuing with the expert interviews in the future :) It also makes researching videos more 'dynamic' rather than just reading papers/books in a basement.
Cheers,
Hugo
Lies again? UEFA SW Pulau Ubin
It makes me sad that somebody like Marine Le Pen, who openly says she wants to cut off all ties to germany entirely, is able concentrate such a high vote share on herself. I have always been proud of the german-french friendship. I have been in France several times through school partnership programs and also privately. I'm really sad that so many people in France don't share that emotion :(
We didn't voted for Le Pen for her ideas on Germany or EU
We voted for her because everyone else is ok with letting French people being robbed, raped and killed in our streets in the name of multiculturalism or cheap labor.
No more, no less.
I will vote for Macron when he will have a clear solution about violence in French cities.
In the mean time, I am sorry that Anti-EU people are getting voices, but that's the only way to make our elite do something.
Most Le Pen voters doesn't vote because of her EU policies, but rather for xenophobic or french anti-establishment views.
Her father and her were rejected 8 times from the presidential seat for 2 decades.
The last vote was supposed to be the last for her presidential ambitions.
For the last few years she tried to sugar coat her ideas, change the name of her party, defend animal causes etc to get as many votes as possible for the wrong reasons, we all know how that worked out
@@Mekesi1 Yes but it's still worrying that her stand on EU politics doesn't stop them from voting for her.
@@Micha-qv5uf the EU is doing nothing for mass immigration that why you have countries like UK wanting to quit
Fantastic video, worthy of 1 million+ views. It's very exciting to see your Europe channel produce such good content for an under-served continent on UA-cam.
We are the strongest when all members of our European brotherhood work together. We need each other. We are all the same. Greetings from Germany!
Indeed, we are the strongest when we stand together, brother
@@haidouk872 Yes!
@@yannik8271 buy our aircraft rafale
Mundane comment.
Too bad that Germany and France think at their own interest. Brothers only when u hv to gain something..
I don't think the Ukrainian war put in question the French idea of strategic autonomy, on the contrary. If europe had followed this strategy earlier it would have been easier to organize and send weapons to Ukraine and less rely on Russian or US energy as it is the case to day.
The United States is carrying the help to Ukraine though. Both militarily and civilian, no other country comes close to the amount the USA has helped and provided the Ukrainians to defend their nation.
@@madsrolstad1664 Yes precisely because Europe has been relying on the US for decades.
We shouldn't be sending all those weapons & money to Ukraine. Half of the weapons get destroyed even before they reach the battlefield, and the other half is being sold on the black market. Ukraine is, and has always been, a center for black market arms trade, and the most corrupt country on the European continent. Add to that all the billions of dollars/euros we've sent them. And for what? Certainly not democracy...or freedom, security, peace,...or whatever empty, meaningless notion they mention. None of it is even remotely true. It's not to protect the Ukrainian people, because the exact opposite is clearly the case. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers die every day, fighting a war their own government started 8 years ago, backed by US/EU thugs with no regard for human life... A war they couldn't possibly win, ever.. And if that's not enough, now they're pushing Ukrainian women to join the cannon fodder that is the Ukrainian army. Top it off with the request of 750 billion dollars Elensky wants to "rebuild Ukraine". Ukraine is done for. Russia will rebuild the regions it now controls, with consent of the people in those regions. The Russians are seen as the LIBERATORS, not the occupiers or invaders. Only western MSM portays it that way in an attempt to convince us that we're on the good side of history. We're not...and haven't been for decades.
BTW, how can we send even more money to Ukraine? The US/EU are broke AF. The people here will suffer coming winter...and next few years as well. If you still haven't figured out what's really going on, I suggest you start to a.s.a.p. because the people of the west are in great peril. Western society is on the brink of collapse, and what ensues, as planned, will mean the end of freedom for the people. You can see it easily, even today. You cannot afford to keep your head buried in the sand, thinking it'll all go away, or get better, all on it's own. WE can't afford so many people keeping their head buried deep inside their own ass, hoping for a savior to come and take us to a better future. There is NO savior, no shining knight on a white horse. The horse died years ago, and the shining knight has been bought by corporate interests and sold out the people he was supposed to protect. The game is coming to an end. Please open your dang eyes so we can unite against those trying to obtain absolute power over all our lives.
@@madsrolstad1664 Germany alone comes somewhat close to US in aid to Ukraine, per capita Germany has probably given equally or more. EU collectively has given more than US, especially when one considers refugees given asylum.
Problem is, Germany, and to a certain extent France, want their cake and eat it too. They want to trade with all the tyrants - Russia, China (and elsewhere) ... and not be responsible for any externalities of that trading relationship.
Hi from Germany and thank you for the video. Yes there will definintely more eastern influence with new members from the east joining. "Wandel durch Handel" has totally failed, you can't really change Russia and China 😬
I think we should listen more to the French in terms of strategic autonomy of the EU...
France's economy is crippling. I heavily doubt that we should listen to them...
@@milschisch9604 What are you talking about? France has one of the best economic growth in the EU and employement is rising for a constant 2 years now... It has done much better during COVID than other coutnries as well... France's economy is far from crippling...
@@XR190190 It’s True. But you have to understand how France’s economy is growing. France uses debt to grow its economy and with a national debt of 98% from their GDP they won’t be able to sustain expenses much longer.
@@milschisch9604 Still not a good argument as the US or Japan have a much bigger %GDp debt and still sustain expenses... Because it is once again a multifactor that makes France a trustworthy economy
''There will definetily be more eastern influence''
Me, a homosexual: Sweating in fear
5:45 Thing is: German is the language with the most speakers. Around 23 % of EU citizens have it as their first language. Before that even more.
german language of my ass
Fair point! Something interesting that I didn't include in the video is that for a long time there were actually more French speakers than German ones in the EU. Its only with the re-unification of Germany and Austria joining the EU that German became the most dominant language (as opposed to French which had France and Wallonia up until then).
Cheers,
Hugo
What? That literally isn’t true, and your statistics aren’t evidence for what you just claimed. More people might speak German as a ‘first’ language but 44% of EU citizens can speak English as a first, second, or third language. German is certainly not as widely known as English in the EU.
@@IntoEurope
44% of EU citizens can speak English as a first, second or third language.
36% of EU citizens can speak German as a first, second or third language.
29% of EU citizens can speak French as a first, second or third language.
18% of EU citizens can speak Italian as a first, second or third language.
17% of EU citizens can speak Spanish as a first, second or third language.
He is incorrect.
@@CeruleanSword Like I said first language
As a german : Nonsense: The EU protects smaller countries and they can interfere and stop what they want. EG Hungary, Luxembourg,....this is why the Eu is so "popular" amongst small countries and they want to join the EU.
Haha, no. Germany gains more from EU than Hungary or Luxembourg
@@danp5073 Sorry - you don't know the numbers do you?
@@minimax9452 even with the money Germany pays into the EU they still benefit far more from the single market than anybody else
@@danp5073 And the british were not able to profit - so they broke off. How many deals are finished ;-))?
It is time France and Germany unite against that.
Weer een mooie productie Hugo!
Dankuwel! Over een paar weken komt er eentje over Nederland! :)
@@IntoEurope where are you from actually, the Netherlands ?
I'm French but I live in the Netherlands
@@IntoEurope J'en été sûr jsp pourquoi, j'hésitais un peut avec la Hollande aussi. Merci pour ton contenu et continue ce que tu fais c'est super !
Great video as always, keep it up! ❤️🇪🇺
How I see it is that the seeming Franco-German hegemony is a direct consequence of a lack of clear (con)-federal structures in the EU, which allows those two countries to still use their power outside of the frame of the Union in order to influence decisions within it.
But, as you pointed out, it’s only natural for the two biggest countries of the Union to have a heavier say on the matters (again, as long as there are no clear federal structures) since they’re the backbone of it.
With the right reforms in the EU, we can ensure further equality among the various states. We have to transform it in such a way that the bigger countries cannot dominate and allow smaller countries to feel like they’re being treated unfairly. (This is kind of already the case, like for example a Maltese person’s vote in the EP has 5 times or something the power of a German person’s vote)
Their astounding cooperation, though, can be used as a culprit for other countries that used to be enemies. The whole Franco-German axis thing should be seen more as something worthy to imitate rather than something to baselessly accuse of trying to conquer the Union.
Thank you! :)
@@IntoEurope Hey, The Visegrad group wasn't based around being an opposition to France and Germany. It was based around integration with the west and western institutions like NATO and the EU. The image of Visegrad being an opposition to Germany and France was made by Hungarian and Polish politicians after 2015, but Czechia and Slovakia aren't as near eurosceptic as Hungary and Poland. I'm just saying - as this institution by definition isn't at all what you described, it was made in 1991 while the rest you mentioned was made very recently and seemingly as an opposition to France and Germany. The newer Three seas initiative would fit much closer to your definition as Visegrad holds bigger value compared to the other newer ones, being the first post-communist western institution after the Warsaw pact for CEE countries.
But all of eat europe are beggar countrys. If they contribute to the eu then they can have more of a say. But as it stands they are nothing but parasites!
I find it weird how you say we should ensure further equality so that big countries don't treat unfairly small ones and give an example of how a small one is treating unfairly a big one. In reality a non-federal system benefits smaller countries more which is why they don't want to change the status quo even if it would benefit them but people only see the benefits they have, and assume all promises are false, especially in Easter Europe.
@@ipel4 Yeah, we’re saying the same thing. I should’ve clarified.
I just wanted to highlight, with my example, that this perceived hegemony of the bigger states is only a stereotype, not based in reality. At least when we’re talking within the frame of the Union and its legal aspects.
In fact, the opposite is true, since as you’ve already pointed out federal systems tend to favor smaller states.
So it’s pretty disingenuous for some to accuse the bigger states of wanting to dominate the Union when they are the ones who are pushing for a federal system that will only weaken their influence and increase that of those who are complaining about being treated unfairly.
As a german I allways find it weird, why in all the news outlets you almost exlusivly you hear german or french opinion on EU Matter. Third in line is surprisingly allways that dude from Luxemburg, who shouldnt be of any importants. I think it would be much better to treat the EU members as equals (acording to size, fuck of Luxemburg) and also hear spanish and polish opinions and so on.
LOL We're giving our opinions about EU all the time but only reactions we get are articles about "Russian paranoia", "Neo-fascism" or "Breaking European Values".
Most pro Luxembourg UA-cam commenter
France and Germany also pay 75...% of the money that comes from the member states.
BS.
Thanks! BTW a lot of news are changed. Like when few weeks ago, the leaders of Germany, Italy, France and Romania went to Kiev, the news around the world mentioned only the first three! And remember that not only Romania is important like Poland because we are the biggest and the most powerful in the east, but because after us they will be next. And beside this, Poland, Romania, Spain and Netherlands we are the only one who have anti nuclear shields
yes, that's true. My italian friend sent me news about this and they mentioned only the three states heads and I told him the Romanian president was there with them as well.
*right to write Kyiv not Kiev.
Don't be fooled, Belgium is leading the whole of Europe. And soon the whole word! Our farmers just have to move some borderstones again.
No, Luxembourg is the actual Overlord. They are the shadow emperor of Europe.
What do Belgians think of the EU?
Some controversial voices might saying that the J E W Z are actually behind all this. 😄
Ah yes, the artificial state ;)
Countries ability to influence the UE block is a multi-tier reality :
- in the first tiers, you have Germany and France (UK belonged to this tiers, but now, it's history).
- in the second tier, you have Italy, Spain and Poland.
- in the third tier, one can find Low Countries, Belgium and Sweden
- afterwards, you have a motley group of moderate regional power countries such as Romania, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, Czechia, Hungary... and the very tiny but inflential Luxemburg.
EU represent US interest, EU doesn't care about European countries or it's people.
That's obviously, responsible EU bureaucracy think doesn't understand what's going on.
People understand EU obeys US, and has Already destroyed European countries when they followed US self-destructive decisions and sanctions against a country their own country and citizens depends on.
EU playing a false game here, pretend all is good. Using media to pretend it's all okay.
But EU completely destroyed European countries economy, they are creating a catastrophic disasters in Europe.
In this winter people are going to freeze too death, when spring and summer are coming they created a huge food shortage in Europe.
European countries where just going fine before EU decided to punish and weakening Russia economical and starting proxywar, what EU have done would definitely destroying Europe.
And responsible politicians will never going to admit Any failure trying to weakening a country their own country and citizens completely depends on.
EU also trying to fooling European citizens and says climate change are important, if climate are important.
Why are they trying to weakening Russia who was delivered cheap gas directly from Russia through New Finnished North stream 2 pipeline ?
EU said they would not be dependent on Russia, but choose to be dependent on expensive LPG gas and oil US.
Shipped from the other side of the globe, when we know 15 huge ship's letting out more pollution than every car on the globe 🌎. ???
US command EU to not be dependent on cheap green gas straight from pipeline, US demand European countries to be dependent on dirty expensive LPG gas shipped from the other side of the globe to Europe ??
Everybody knows that will destroy Europe and climate even more, it will destroy Europe economy completely.
US are not able to replace all cheap gas and oil from Russia with expensive dirty LPG gas and oil Europe would need, US are not able to deliver all cheap fertilizer with expensive fertilizer shipped from the other side of the globe.
Let's see if US could deliver what European countries need, what about pollution from 100 huge ship's from the other side of the globe (US) to Europe.
US demand to destroying Europe, EU collective agreed to do exactly that.
Not Russia who are destroyed, EU are responsible for destroying Europe.
European countries would collapse, because European weak leaders.
Are no strong western leaders left who care about their own country and citizens, they are gone.
US control EU, EU control all western leaders to do what best destroying their own country.
It seems like all you have done is look at a map and the size of the countries. The Netherlands actually has a larger economy than Poland and definitely has more influence in the EU. Just look at the history of EU policies. I’d say that the EU is leaded by it’s five largest economies: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
@@sdf6508 it still looks so wrong to see Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the cultural behemoths of Western Europe, leading without the UK. It should clearly be in that list to complete it.
Will the EU ever heal and get its fundamental member back?
@@sdf6508 Economy is just one element. Militarily, it's insignificant
@@andrehunter1295 rusaboo spotted 🤣
France is the most important country for Europe. It is the only country in Europe beside Russia which has independent space access, which it has donated to Europe by ESA ( European Space Agency ) of which France is still the largest contributor. France has the ability to independently develop every military hardware and does so, it is the only country in Europe whose military is totally independent of usa, it is a nuclear power, it is an energy exporter and ensures energy security of the entire Europe, it is simply legendary.
No, it isn't. It's just one important European state. Not even in a good shape now: with a high public debt (118% of GDP!), internal society conflicts and precarious presence in Africa.
Countries like Germany, Italy and Spain have strong military industries.
Fremm frigate ships and FSAF SAMP/T missile system (now used in Ukraine) are made in cooperation with Italy, not by France alone.
Italy is talking to UK and Japan for next generation Tempest military aircraft, not to France and not even to Germany.
Being an energy exporter is a good thing, but nuclear plants of France are old and half of reactors are currenty off-grid for maintenance. It's also a very vulnerable system: just a dry season and reactors must be stopped due to lack of cooling water. No, it's not the most important country of Europe and the emerging of Eastern Countries of Europe will diminish its role further, economically and even militarily.
@@marcobeardo985Well said
@@marcobeardo985 SAMP/T missile FRENCH TECHNOLOGY.
@@marcobeardo985 TU PEU XTOUJOURS REVER MON PETIT SPAGHETTI.
@@maynamar2517 No it isn't. It's made by consortium Eurosam, of French and Italian companies: MBDA France (33,33%)
MBDA Italy (33,33%)
Thales Group (33,33%)
The bigger picture is that you cannot compare one country to another directly. Many regions in Germany are larger in both in population and economy than most European countries. Just compare eg. Bavaria alone has bigger economy and larger population than Hungary, Greece, Croatia, Czech, Slovakia etc. It is obvious that larger countries will take the lead
It is not obvious. Germany has a population of 83 million, making it the largest country in the EU by population. I think it is obvious that the other 364 million EU citizens do not want Germany to lead.
@@mattearl8213 France first
@@dantealighieri4857 Right, to surrender.
@@mattearl8213 no Denmark was the swiftest country to surrender (German campaign lasted 6 hours in the country). The French fought a lot
@@dantealighieri4857 Yeah,but there was slight difference in size of countries and armies...
It's complicated. It should be mentioned, that the EU is a parliamentary institution with separate individual European parties. The party members can come from different European countries. So there is no single "German or French party". (you can have a democratic party with party members from Poland, France, Belgium etc. who all consider themselves democrats) Considering this, you can't just "block" an agenda for the goals of one individual country. It all boils down what European party you vote for and what interests this European party represents. That's why it seems to many people that the EU itself doesn't have a prominent goal, or feels like an empty shell, but in fact it's a broad compromise made by half a billion people. And the parliament is what drives the EU. Measured by the population Italy, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Czechia have a quite big weight in terms of the votes too. It shouldn't be neglected. There are so many member of the EU that there is no easy majority and it's hard to bend it in a way so it's the advantage of a single entity. And all of this is a good thing. It is in essence very democratic. Also the EU has no real president with an executive task. Perhaps that's why it feels like a headless organization. But it reinforces a more democratic nature. Democracy is sometimes slow and sometimes maybe complicated, but it respects most of it's members more than a single leader would do, even if he/she promises "easy solutions".
Very often a thing is not the task of the EU, like for instance in many cases with certain foreign affairs. And very often in this case the individual country's politics of Germany or France is mixed up with EU politics, but are separate things.
EU represent US interest, EU doesn't care about European countries or it's people.
That's obviously, responsible EU bureaucracy think doesn't understand what's going on.
People understand EU obeys US, and has Already destroyed European countries when they followed US self-destructive decisions and sanctions against a country their own country and citizens depends on.
EU playing a false game here, pretend all is good. Using media to pretend it's all okay.
But EU completely destroyed European countries economy, they are creating a catastrophic disasters in Europe.
In this winter people are going to freeze too death, when spring and summer are coming they created a huge food shortage in Europe.
European countries where just going fine before EU decided to punish and weakening Russia economical and starting proxywar, what EU have done would definitely destroying Europe.
And responsible politicians will never going to admit Any failure trying to weakening a country their own country and citizens completely depends on.
EU also trying to fooling European citizens and says climate change are important, if climate are important.
Why are they trying to weakening Russia who was delivered cheap gas directly from Russia through New Finnished North stream 2 pipeline ?
EU said they would not be dependent on Russia, but choose to be dependent on expensive LPG gas and oil US.
Shipped from the other side of the globe, when we know 15 huge ship's letting out more pollution than every car on the globe 🌎. ???
US command EU to not be dependent on cheap green gas straight from pipeline, US demand European countries to be dependent on dirty expensive LPG gas shipped from the other side of the globe to Europe ??
Everybody knows that will destroy Europe and climate even more, it will destroy Europe economy completely.
US are not able to replace all cheap gas and oil from Russia with expensive dirty LPG gas and oil Europe would need, US are not able to deliver all cheap fertilizer with expensive fertilizer shipped from the other side of the globe.
Let's see if US could deliver what European countries need, what about pollution from 100 huge ship's from the other side of the globe (US) to Europe.
US demand to destroying Europe, EU collective agreed to do exactly that.
Not Russia who are destroyed, EU are responsible for destroying Europe.
European countries would collapse, because European weak leaders.
Are no strong western leaders left who care about their own country and citizens, they are gone.
US control EU, EU control all western leaders to do what best destroying their own country.
Nice video :).
I think the EU could consider a tiered model, where some countries (e.g. France, Germany , Benelux, etc.) Integrate more closely while other countries don't. Currently, with the VETO vote in the Council each country can stop EU foreign policy legislation making things very difficult. Macron mentioned something like this yesterday... Interesting times ahead
@isle9 that will require treaty change though... So maybe in 10 years. And do you think Viktor Orban will allow that to happen? I reckon he will VETO ;)
I think that's kinda what Emmanuel Macron wants when he says "Europe à deux vitesses" which literally means two speeds Europe ('s adhesion), would be great
@@EUMadeSimple Well, there won't be any further EU expansion without the veto being chopped first.
I think if it comes down to this, we better simply brake the EU along the lines of Soviet occupation. It is clear that if the Veto goes away and we adopt a two thier adhesion policy, we should simply revert back the 2004 extension because it is clear we don't share that much anymore.
Well, are countries actually allowed to dissent? Macron just phrased it as "You're just not integrated yet, this is how we pull you in."
Germany has a larger population and economy while France has nukes, a strong military and footholds all around the globe as well as the second largest EEZ in the world. They complete each other quite perfectly.
We are 27 countries involved, so we decide at 27.
The goal of the EU is to protect our interests, not to sacrifice something for the others. If a country disagree, he can block a decision (or negociate to have something in exchange).
It's not perfect, of course, but we advance together as an emerging superpower.
And once we achieve to have this status : peace, stability and prosperity on our soil will be secured for decades, or even centuries.
We're US vassal states
@Nemusis 999 Exactly lmao. Tell that to that frenchie
@@ZERO-tv5zg peace could be, but here is the thing.
As long as the EU is small, we have no wars against us, but against other countrys.
As the Border expands, we are getting farer away and can't save us against others that good. And tention in our own lands will rise.
The EU wouldn't be a country. It would be an empire. And as we grow, we need to choose if some countrys are on this side of the border or on the other.
As empires are getting bigger, they start to fall, because nobody can rule so much and not everybody likes everybody the same way.
Imagine you are in spain:
If war is in france, you should be alarmed, because you would be next in line, but if war is in finnland, you wouldn't care the same way.
Every country has that one best friend, but not everybody can be best friends.
We are 27 countries, but 2 are those that matter, let's be honest.
EU represent US interest, EU doesn't care about European countries or it's people.
That's obviously, responsible EU bureaucracy think doesn't understand what's going on.
People understand EU obeys US, and has Already destroyed European countries when they followed US self-destructive decisions and sanctions against a country their own country and citizens depends on.
EU playing a false game here, pretend all is good. Using media to pretend it's all okay.
But EU completely destroyed European countries economy, they are creating a catastrophic disasters in Europe.
In this winter people are going to freeze too death, when spring and summer are coming they created a huge food shortage in Europe.
European countries where just going fine before EU decided to punish and weakening Russia economical and starting proxywar, what EU have done would definitely destroying Europe.
And responsible politicians will never going to admit Any failure trying to weakening a country their own country and citizens completely depends on.
EU also trying to fooling European citizens and says climate change are important, if climate are important.
Why are they trying to weakening Russia who was delivered cheap gas directly from Russia through New Finnished North stream 2 pipeline ?
EU said they would not be dependent on Russia, but choose to be dependent on expensive LPG gas and oil US.
Shipped from the other side of the globe, when we know 15 huge ship's letting out more pollution than every car on the globe 🌎. ???
US command EU to not be dependent on cheap green gas straight from pipeline, US demand European countries to be dependent on dirty expensive LPG gas shipped from the other side of the globe to Europe ??
Everybody knows that will destroy Europe and climate even more, it will destroy Europe economy completely.
US are not able to replace all cheap gas and oil from Russia with expensive dirty LPG gas and oil Europe would need, US are not able to deliver all cheap fertilizer with expensive fertilizer shipped from the other side of the globe.
Let's see if US could deliver what European countries need, what about pollution from 100 huge ship's from the other side of the globe (US) to Europe.
US demand to destroying Europe, EU collective agreed to do exactly that.
Not Russia who are destroyed, EU are responsible for destroying Europe.
European countries would collapse, because European weak leaders.
Are no strong western leaders left who care about their own country and citizens, they are gone.
US control EU, EU control all western leaders to do what best destroying their own country.
Why France and Germany?
In the EU there were 4 big countries: France, Germany, Italy and the UK.
The UK was a member of the EU for the money and not the idea. That is why we had Brexit.
Italy is harder to explain, but the Italian politics are... very Italian. Since 1945, Italy had 69 governments with an average lifespan of just over 1 year.
Then you have the smaller big countries: Spain and Poland. S
pain was a dictatorship until Franco's death in 1975. In 1981 there was a failed military coup attempt. The EU brought stability to Spain and not reverse. Poland was in a similar position. In 1989 Poland had it's own peaceful anti-communist revolution. Political stability is important, but there is another factor. Diplomatic staff is needed for negotiations at the highest level. Countries that had a revolution need it capable staff to build up their own country and not the EU. The need to build an internal network befor they can build a diplomatic netwerk.
Then you have a country like The Netherlands. It is the biggest of the smaller countries (or the smallest of the bigger?).
The Dutch and the Benelux countries as a whole are important. The Benelux itself was/is a lab to test unification. A lot of European treaties are signed in the low countries. Brussels is the centrum of the EU for a reason. I'm pretty sure a lot of Franco-German solutions were backed by the work of diplomats from the low countries. A lot of the EU treaties have names of Dutch cities. Germany and France can be leaders in the EU, however Benelux often deliver the actual leaders of the EU institutions.
Why France and Germany? Well there was nobody else that can play that role.
That can change, the EU was for a long time a Western European Union. Now the intrests of the EU are a lot more Eastern. Ukraine as an EU member could be interesting, as a Poland has a better network in that part of Europe than a France or Germany.
I recon there will a big divide between east and west
@@francisbell1961 south and north will divide more. But lets be honest the divides are mostly etnic and cultural anyways. There is no denying that we have a Germanic, Latin and Slavic division in the EU. It somehow comes out in culture, upbringing, way of thinking, I dont know what.
@@swamidude2214 would France be part of the Germanic divide? Since they speak a romance language but do stuff similar to the Germans.
As an Italian, we had that much government changes to reach 69.
From now on the Moderate Right will most likely hold for another 69 years
@@Tortellobello45 Yes, the Draghi government is likely to hold on for years. LOL
if you ask this question to a Chinese, they all think German is a lead of Europe.
Suggesting that France has a significant edge politically, or Germany economically, is simplistic and flat out wrong. Both are powerhouses politically and economically. But together, they form a union behind only to the US and China. With those two at the core of the EU, the Union remains relevant and all members of the DU benefit.
The BENELUX was the first cooperation between European countries combining resources. Not Germany and France.
The Netherlands is also been in the headlines a lot for supporting Ukraine lately.
I can't believe the UK was once a member of the EU and didn't seizes this opportunity to be a leader member of this union... These 3 big countries united in this organization, it was beautiful... As a French, I still believe in the EU, I still believe in the old continent 🇪🇺
The UK prefered being an American puppet state more
There's nothing to believe in, friend. Ils nous ont menti et nous ont retiré à la fois souveraineté institutionnelle et maîtrise de nos finances.
@@TheVoodooMaker maybe you're right but, maybe there were other solutions than Brexit...
@@vincent2961 Who are we to argue with them ? They voted out, it's time we stopped pretending to be know-it-alls.
Heineken's Eurotopia is still a better idea than most 'solutions' to any European federal imbalance, should it continue to form.
Absolutely true! Furthermore we wouldn't have our classical nationalism problems that could form. Very interesting idea.
For those who are interested in the concept en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_United_States_of_Europe,_A_Eurotopia%3F
Love your video's, keep up the good work!
Thank you! :)
A NEW VIDEO, LETS GOOOOO, Love your videos guy
And soon there will be more a more consistent upload schedule! :)
@@IntoEurope :D
Thanks for this concise and well-researched video!
Neither Germany nor France or even both together could make politics without the help of their fellow European neighbours. And that is good. As a German I support the idea of a decentralized form of state just like it is within Germany. Only by consensus and dialogue we will find the best solutions for the problems of our time. What single voices lead can to can be seen in fucked up Russia or other shitty places in the world.
what a france-germany-centric way of looking at the inception of the EU. I understand that focusing on the lock instead of the key is appealing. The key is small right? But it seems like we forget that the benelux was the inspiration and source for all of this. Small countries that punch way above their weight. Enjoy the freedom and prosperity we provided for you while you focus on land-mass and large-population-countries.
- Kisses.
I’m French but we must not forget the importance of Italy yes they have issues with their economy right now but Italy will always remain as one of the biggest powerhouse country in the world. Spain has also made a lot of improvement since the dictatorship felt down in the 50’s. Altought I would say than Germany and France have both their own importance. Germany has the leadership as the economic powerhouse of the continent but France has the leadership as the military powerhouse. As I don’t see France being capable of overtake Germany in economic prospect but I think Germany will soon has a strong army and France may loose this military leadership.
Love EU from 🇮🇹
France has both military and diplomatic leadership actually, and it willl stay that way since they got their own nukes and while Germany will catch up in its military France would still have the bigger tools, and France does have the Permanent security member place at the UN, which is more used as the EU security member than solely France these days especially since the idea of making the EU or Germany as permanent member failed though im not too knowledgeable bout it. So its not like France is going to lose its edge over Germany anyway.
Though not a single member state can actually afford to try and "rule" EU alone anyway
@@Freedmoon44 i mean we germans ae not allowed nukes so i dosen´t really work that way
Italians don’t want Eu, we are Mediterranean not European.
@@cosacercononloso italiy is in in europe so youre european
In May 1945, Russian music was playing in all cafes and restaurants in Berlin. Go to Berlin, Paris, Rome, Brussels, London or any city in the EU today and listen to whose music is being played. Then it will be clear to you who actually leads the European Union.
I don't get it, do u mean like the US??
But btw, in italy we lostrn to italian music, because not everyone speaks English and we have very good music tradition and many competitions.
@@mattia8327 Of course, brother. I used the example with music only as an allegory. Of course, not only American music is listened to, but domestic music as well. The point is that these "Does Germany or France lead the EU" topics are trivial. If the EU does what the US says, then who leads the EU is not overly important.
As a famous French politician said : We like Germany so much that it was better when there was two of them.
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit! ☝
@@aquarius4073 Le bruit des bottes
@@adrien5116the arrogance of a fool.
@@suchendnachwahrheit9143The way I see it, it's more a clever joke on our diverging interests inside of our union.
@@adrien5116 it is a bit hypocritical though. As long as the French are on top, everything was great and nothing had to change.
Reunification was absolutely vital for the german nation and is deeply ingrained in our consciousness. The partition of Germany, more than anything else, was the deepest and longest lasting wound from the Second World War. If there had been a third war, the Germans would have had to kill each other, perhaps perishing as a nation and people entirely. The French are known to make political jokes and that is fine, but especially in this case, it is important that no German can appreciate that particular one. Too much was at stake. Nothing was better, when there were two Germanies. Five hundred thousand soviet troups were in East Germany, people were literally sold to the West for currency, thousands were detained or tortured and the next war loomed like a promise of apocalypse over both. With the reunification of Germany the last wound healed out and a potential apocalypse was averted.
I am not trying to overdramatize(though I probably seem like it), but I advise you not to make that joke in front of a German, especially if he is a bit older. He will feel irritated
Regarding recent events of the war in Ukraine I think Poland would be a great addition to this duality once it's supporting values of the EU (abortion rights & independent supreme court) again. Romanic, Germanic and Slavic cultures have to be unified for a working European entity.
You have a typo. That which is related to the Roman empire IS called latin, not romanian.
@@alejandroojeda1572 Romance, romanic or romanesque - doesn’t make a difference. But you’re right, although it’s a Latin culture as well I don’t mean Romanian in this case :)
Yeah, but like you said, Poland has to make the right steps in the near future. The polish society is deeply divided between liberal EU supporters and conservative Poland first-PIS supporters. And the populist government has undermined the democracy and judiciary. That's not a good foundation for anything at all.
yeah well im slavic but why tf should poland get this privilege and not any other slavic nation?
With the UK out of the picture (for now) it's up to Italy, Spain and Poland as the next largest countries to start a more proactive role in the union. I'd really like to see more cooperation and integration so not every decision depends on France and Germany.
Poland may have some issues but if it can adopt a constructive political stance towards the EU the potential is huge, especially since the current focus of the EU is towards the east.
Nice. Very well made!! Very informative.
Hi
Thank you for the video Mr Hugo, very interesting
The best european centered media ! 🇪🇺
Thank you! :)
Thanks for your videos, @into europe. I truly enjoy them.
As a small correction to "germany is slow at delivering support to ukraine".
Germany is the second largest donator to ukraine behind the USA.
And alot of the contributions of countries like Poland, Czech Republic, Denmark etc are financed by germany.
How germany finance other countrys contribution?
@@pep-qew example: Poland delivers 50 T-72M1´s from their long term storage.
Afterwards they file a request to the EU Aid Fund for financial compensation.
Or germany pays for the stuff directly, like with the danish M113 APC´s, Leo1A5DK´s and many other pieces of equipment as agreed with the relevant partners. Germany shouldered the fnancial burdon of quite a large amount of such deliveries from EU partners.
Fun Fact: poland filed requests for more than double the compensation amount it even delivered. (A T-72M1 has a market value of about 500k$ when in top condition.
Poland delivered 300 of them plus a few other things and filed requests for 3.3b$)
@@zhufortheimpaler4041 remember that not only germany pay for eu aid fund
@@pep-qew germany pays 25% of that alone.
Poland is athe largest net taker from EU funds in all areas.
@@zhufortheimpaler4041 in reality not, for every 1 euro that Poland gets from eu 0.70 euro is taken by western companies in Poland.
more than 70 years, this rivalry has existed for centuries since the Valois and Habsburgs engaged on territorial disputes.
One should note that it was the British Empire who bolstered and Financed the Prussians to fight France.
In which war? In the napoleonic then yes obviously and rightly. They didn't in the Franco Prussian war. And what bearing does this have on anything related in this video?
@@hansgruber788 its this retared-ass conspiracy theory that the Anglos (Brits and Now Americas) are behind every problem ever in European History, Especially over the last 300 years.
They Caused the Napoleonic Wars (The American Ideological Export, the British Provocation, and Financing etc)
They Caused the Franco-Prussian Wars (I dont know, the Rothschilds or something about American Banks or something)
They Caused the World Wars (British Playing of continental Powers against each other and American Selling Arms to both Sides)
But anyone with even a slight degree of historical understanding can see that these are super reductive claims that dont even hold up when the evidence is truly examined. It's just a way to rag on the Anglos
This, while true at the time, is irrelevant to today's reality
EU represent US interest, EU doesn't care about European countries or it's people.
That's obviously, responsible EU bureaucracy think doesn't understand what's going on.
People understand EU obeys US, and has Already destroyed European countries when they followed US self-destructive decisions and sanctions against a country their own country and citizens depends on.
EU playing a false game here, pretend all is good. Using media to pretend it's all okay.
But EU completely destroyed European countries economy, they are creating a catastrophic disasters in Europe.
In this winter people are going to freeze too death, when spring and summer are coming they created a huge food shortage in Europe.
European countries where just going fine before EU decided to punish and weakening Russia economical and starting proxywar, what EU have done would definitely destroying Europe.
And responsible politicians will never going to admit Any failure trying to weakening a country their own country and citizens completely depends on.
EU also trying to fooling European citizens and says climate change are important, if climate are important.
Why are they trying to weakening Russia who was delivered cheap gas directly from Russia through New Finnished North stream 2 pipeline ?
EU said they would not be dependent on Russia, but choose to be dependent on expensive LPG gas and oil US.
Shipped from the other side of the globe, when we know 15 huge ship's letting out more pollution than every car on the globe 🌎. ???
US command EU to not be dependent on cheap green gas straight from pipeline, US demand European countries to be dependent on dirty expensive LPG gas shipped from the other side of the globe to Europe ??
Everybody knows that will destroy Europe and climate even more, it will destroy Europe economy completely.
US are not able to replace all cheap gas and oil from Russia with expensive dirty LPG gas and oil Europe would need, US are not able to deliver all cheap fertilizer with expensive fertilizer shipped from the other side of the globe.
Let's see if US could deliver what European countries need, what about pollution from 100 huge ship's from the other side of the globe (US) to Europe.
US demand to destroying Europe, EU collective agreed to do exactly that.
Not Russia who are destroyed, EU are responsible for destroying Europe.
European countries would collapse, because European weak leaders.
Are no strong western leaders left who care about their own country and citizens, they are gone.
US control EU, EU control all western leaders to do what best destroying their own country.
@@andrehunter1295 Dude, shut the fuck up with that BS
Your content is always super top-notch
Unfortunately, our (EU) role is getting closer to Arabian Gulf's role - "Pay to the US, and shush."
When we were given a little space to express ourselves like a month after the Russian invasion, we started challenging each other's views and weren't united in any way.
Let us see how the situation around EU MSs will resolve, but I don't see it much positively.
EU represent US interest, EU doesn't care about European countries or it's people.
That's obviously, responsible EU bureaucracy think doesn't understand what's going on.
People understand EU obeys US, and has Already destroyed European countries when they followed US self-destructive decisions and sanctions against a country their own country and citizens depends on.
EU playing a false game here, pretend all is good. Using media to pretend it's all okay.
But EU completely destroyed European countries economy, they are creating a catastrophic disasters in Europe.
In this winter people are going to freeze too death, when spring and summer are coming they created a huge food shortage in Europe.
European countries where just going fine before EU decided to punish and weakening Russia economical and starting proxywar, what EU have done would definitely destroying Europe.
And responsible politicians will never going to admit Any failure trying to weakening a country their own country and citizens completely depends on.
EU also trying to fooling European citizens and says climate change are important, if climate are important.
Why are they trying to weakening Russia who was delivered cheap gas directly from Russia through New Finnished North stream 2 pipeline ?
EU said they would not be dependent on Russia, but choose to be dependent on expensive LPG gas and oil US.
Shipped from the other side of the globe, when we know 15 huge ship's letting out more pollution than every car on the globe 🌎. ???
US command EU to not be dependent on cheap green gas straight from pipeline, US demand European countries to be dependent on dirty expensive LPG gas shipped from the other side of the globe to Europe ??
Everybody knows that will destroy Europe and climate even more, it will destroy Europe economy completely.
US are not able to replace all cheap gas and oil from Russia with expensive dirty LPG gas and oil Europe would need, US are not able to deliver all cheap fertilizer with expensive fertilizer shipped from the other side of the globe.
Let's see if US could deliver what European countries need, what about pollution from 100 huge ship's from the other side of the globe (US) to Europe.
US demand to destroying Europe, EU collective agreed to do exactly that.
Not Russia who are destroyed, EU are responsible for destroying Europe.
European countries would collapse, because European weak leaders.
Are no strong western leaders left who care about their own country and citizens, they are gone.
US control EU, EU control all western leaders to do what best destroying their own country.
Honestly, as a Central European, I'd rather listen to the US, a country that managed to keep Europe peaceful and freed us from communism, than some European corrupted and ideological bureaucrats (It's hard to even call them leaders) I prefer Europe controlled by the US, than controlled by Franco-German progressive elite that is completely detached from reality of most of the continent.
Country’s should not be leading the EU, the EU parliament should, as its chosen by the Citizens.
7:10 "Other countries have found coalitions with superheroes sounding names like..."
"the new hanseatic league" "The visegrad group"
Bruh, someone's forgetting their history it seems
He's not wrong though. They sound kinda Marvel. Or DC?
Anybody who has a minimal understanding of geopolitics would know it is the US.
The Franco-German relationship is the core idea of Europe. Merge your economies to make wars im possible. Share common international institutions ,the EU, in order to solve disputs diplomatically. It's today's recipe for peace and coorperation on the European continent. The EU itself is the realization of this idea on a continental scale.
these are the nations who make the major proposals, then there's unofficial need of approval from italy, spain and poland, then comes the round of critic from Hungary and the nordics before finally being put for a vote
I disagree, the European experiment was always under the protection of American arms. The war in Ukraine shows that without the American presence Europe would just collapse to outside pressures.
@@heartsofiron4ever Exactly. Germany doesn't deserve to be a leader and soon we will find out who's the boss in house. We need like 5 more years. Greeting's from Poland.
@@nopenope460 hahaha Poland, how are you doing with 40 million people and a lower fertility rate then Germany? All hail the great old Poland
@@heartsofiron4ever We don't care about quantity, only quality. And how do you feel about safety on the streets and Christmas markets after letting in uncontrolled numbers of blacks? Just don't say that they will do anything other than sit on welfare, sell drugs to kids or stab people. hahah. Spass bei Seite, we need to be good Neighbours. Hail Hydra.
Small correction : The Benelux (Belgium, Nederland and Luxemebourg) "customs convention" came before (1947) and was therefore a form of origin of the Coal and Steel community.
I am not European or an expert on EU. But in terms of leadership when I think of the European Union, France and Germany always come up, It has privileged positions in the main organizations and for many historical issues such as imperialism, revolutions, cultural influences, despite Spain, Italy and Greece also have some relevance in this regard.
And with the Brexit this became more evident.
100% true, Greeks people are the first who pays the bill. But actually EU produce ton of propaganda.
You should check how the structure of the Eu actually works. There’s no favourites. Germany and France seem more privileged because they’re the one who speaker louder and are one of the highest net positive contributors. Realistically tho even together they can’t pass anything without support of other members
What about countries like Italy or Spain,these states could be an important voice in the EU,as a counter weight for the french-german partnership.shifting some decisitions making to the mediterranean sea.
Not all countries want to take the responsibility of being de facto leaders or top representatives of the block. Its unwritten but known that Germany expands their influence eastwards while France expands their influence southwards to Latin Europe (Spain, Italy) and Africa.
@@vinhbao9738 Yes,not all countries wants to take responsability for the rest of the members states but as I said states like Italy or Spain could act as a counter weight giving more decision making to the south,a few days ago I was reading an article about the G4 in the EU:Germany,Italy,Spain and France,this approach reinforce the influence of Spain and Italy.
@@vinhbao9738 Italy is almost the same size of France how France can influence over Italy? Stop dreaming bro
@@marcos.2373 Mi permetta di correggerla, la Francia ha un territorio che si estende per quasi 650000 km quadrati, mentre l'Italia "soltanto" 301000 km quadrati
@@marcos.2373 Larger economy, Millitary, an actually stable economy at that, and over twice the landmass, so not "almost the same"
Me, I do
Isn’t that the beauty about the EU. No country is the leader. Every country is dependent on another. One way or the other way. That’s a union slow, but also quite resilient. That’s doesn’t make the EU a superlative, but solid foundation for a free world. The best of everything…
great vid!
Thank you! :)
“I love Germany so much I’m happy there are two of them”: although said by a Nobel Prize laureate, this phrase sounds either remarkably dumb or evil-minded. I assume he loved France even more, nevertheless I bet he would not have liked it to have been split in three. A post-war scenario with three Frances seems catastrophic, not enchanting, right?
with enlargement back on the agenda it will be interesting to see how the EU is reformed to accommodate them
I hope we get better defensive measures. NATO is great, but the EU could do much better. So far, I feel like we're going in the right direction,but only time will tell
I don't think there is gona be an enlargement any time soon.
They gave Ukraine and Moldova a candidate status for the show but it means nothing.
We can't accept anymore members as long as we didn't solve our problem, just few days ago Hungary blocked a global minimum tax plan wanted by all others members, it's absurd, one country should not be able to block all the others, we have to solve this if it's still possible before considering adding more countries.
Yeah, putins dog
NO!!! We need to kick countries out not get more in specially not the corupt eastern European ones.
@@alexp6013 Defensive against what? I want a defense against the banks and the multinational corporations... the things that the EU defends more than anything else.
Thanks Hugo, great video
Thank you!
Germany of course
This video shows what is always obvious around debates about the EU. It's antecedents, the common market et al brought peace and prosperity to Europe. The EU and the concept of ever closer union brings friction.
Dude the hanesatic league where kinda north German trade colonist in all those countries, that´s a weird name but glad we left a good impression.
At the end. LUXEMBOURG is laughing hard at France and Germany 🤣😂 richer and hidden power
Videos are getting better with each upload, like other comments the two biggest countries have a bigger say on how the EU is run. It is really great to see representatives of the EU providing information to video's subject.
Thank you! Soon with 3D animations to explain policy :)
it’s common sense when you mention countries inside Europe. it is division.
no country hs a majority in the EU, u need to convince minimum 8 countries to hv a majority in the EU parliament :)
The question is, can France and Germany somehow slowly take the lead back and implement it as a key EU function? Germany tried to take over Europe twice with military force. Why not take it over peacefully with politics and back up that power with France's military power? Both countries clearly want to shape the EU to their liking. What is stopping them from beeing less suttle about it? Poland gained alot of influence with the war in Ukraine. Everyone now follows their bidding, as long as the war is going. But if both countries succeed in retaining Polands power after the war, there should not be too much compitition yet, especially with GB gone.
Edit: I am ignoring ethics because they are subjective and usually thrown out of the window in politics anyway.
if the EU is a bus then France and Germany are no doubt the engine...
then you have 27 people at the steering wheel
Italy as well
@@lucadesanctis563
how
Great Videos! Love your Style!
The New Hanseatic league has a GDP per Capita of €50,000, well above the EU average.
Ireland is also pushing for non-EU but wealthy EFTA countries Norway and Iceland to be part of it or some kind of semi-members. Both have shown interest.
none cares
@@BananaRama1312 why are you here? Really I'm curious
@@matteoc.6162 weird yt recommendations
@@matteoc.6162 i am here just to see what is going on in Europe...🏴☠️🏴
@@KingKong-jy4ut It's been a hell hole for the last 2000 years.
I Do 😊
Let us not forget the falling of the Berlin wall started in Poland ;)
Great video
This video discounts the British Effect on the EU leadership. It was the Big 3. Britain had a significant shift on both France and Germany and their relationship to each other and elsewhere.
Yea but they peaced out. Biggest mistake of the century.
Yes that is a fair point and something that I left out of the video. My understanding currently is that Britain actually served to balance the relationship in France's favour and their leaving is just another factor in the relationship being unbalanced nowadays. Additionally Britain never looked for the pro-eminent role that Germany has by default or that France is actually looking for.
Another thing to mentions is that by looking solely at the French German partnership it also minimizes the role of the other member states in decision making.
Thanks for your comment!
Cheers,
Hugo
Germany , France , Italy and Spain , in that order
the problem is the EU bureaucratic state itself.
EU is lead by the corporate lobbies.
The EU has the least amount of bureaucrats per Captia. 60K Employee for 447 Million Citizen. Tell me one country - besides North Korea - where lobbyist do not want to make influence?
and the us is a corrupt oligarchy so what exactly is your point?
They lobby OFICIALLY in U.S.
Easy answer,both Germany,and France supported by their sidekicks,Belguim,spain,Luxembourg, Ireland.European union controlled by an awful lot of back scratching.
I notice in the video and comments, there is little mention of either Spain or Portugal. Out of curiosity, are they not major players in this particular game???
Spain, yes! Portugal? Not so much..
No.
This is because Spain is the size of Poland not Italy. Regarding Portugal... it is smaller than Sweden and the average salary is smaller than in Slovenia.
E.U should transform itself as a Federation and being called "United States of Europe" only composed with: France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Austria.
The rest of the European countries would be part of a very close relationship with the United States of Europe and would remain in the NATO but won't have the Euro €.
That's the best solution
For now it should form a small nation composing of Germany, Netherlands, France, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and maybe Denmark. Then once that is succefull then we can get Spain, Portugal, Italy, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Slovenia next into the EU.
Why would the UK agree to this if they don't even want to be in the EU?
@@SuperWiggler Because this Federation would be only composed by the richest European countries.
UK was tired to pay for poor countries and saw nothing to gain in the EU.
@@cqpp I believe that Italy too would join right away as we are one of the main creators of the EU.
In the past we wanted to enter the MGCS (European MBT) project but France kicked us out for who knows what reason ...
We are still a long way from a united Europe. We want to create from 2025 the first Europe brigade made up of 5000 soldiers but we have not yet united the EU from a linguistic, monetary and military industrial point of view.
@@cqpp Now we need to worry about the next Italian votes to be held in September. If the Right (Giorgia Meloni) wins, something bad could happen. I believe it will allow the Fascists to celebrate the centenary of the march on Rome.
Some interesting opinion: if Ukraine joined EU, with its somewhat high population, it would undermine Franco-German hegemony, therefore they are likely not keen on this possibility until they secure enough power for the future.
no it would not, Ukraine would be the poorest country in Europe, which mean little power in the end
We're not, I'm all for more friends in the EU!
germany doesnt want to rule so blocking any country from joining the eu is out of the question for us.
in fact the german government wants ukraine to join based on its importance as a future trading partner of natural gas.
I believe more than a revilarly its a friendship. Both are very strong in many regards and compliment eachother as a team well
This sounds simple & direct... Let France take the lead in the EU military role while Germany takes the lead in the EU economic role.
Quite symbiotic yeah?
the French can't fight
The Germans will not agree
@@pierren___ Why not?
@@IMFLordVader they recently raise their budget and they dont want an independant army (treaty of Élysée - Preambule)
@@pierren___ The Bundeswehr is crap. Better to disband all troops and invest in a military which works
Just have to recreate the Empire of Charlemagne and have the best of both Worlds....
I think France has much more potential than Germany when it comes to leadership. Germany has failed to manage properly every single issue they tackled.
Merkelism go brrrrrrrr
Merkel is gone now. When Scholz became chancellor I thought, there wouldn't be much change, but I was quite suprised. He handles the Ukraine crisis quite ok. Like way better than expected.
@@Skyl3t0n well im pretty sure even Merkel wouldve given funding to the military if an invasion happened on the doorstep of Europe, but true enough he handles the crisis decently
Like what "potential "? Like almost Voting for a presidential candidate who wants to end the Union and install a kind of 19th Century Nationalism? I do not see where Germany has "failed" besides that strategic Issue falling for russian energy. Poland / UK for instead joined a bs War in Iraq with the US which has not only murdered Million Peoples but also destabilized our European Backyard for 20 Years and created a big mess and terror till today. How many of these Iraq/ Syrian "Issues" the UK and Poland took as the they reached our European borders and ask for help?
@@Skyl3t0n I have to agree, Scholz is actually a decent chancellor, but I still kind of think he should have instantly positioned himself like the Green party did.
There is lot of misconception about EU. People think it was born because of France and Germany when it was born actually because of Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy and also Germany and France. Six countries
Short anwer: the capitalists of the EU are the ones who rule, and France and Germany have the most and the richest capitalists so they are the countries that lead.
Ironic that since defeating France at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the defeat of Germany in 1945, both these countries would still end up leading Europe.
Which is Britain biggest nightmare.
Disagree but I am Dutch. EU does not work that way. A very Anglo-Saxon POV.
I'm French :)
@@IntoEurope It is obvious then why you think this way.
Do you know which country is the biggest net contributor to the EU? Just think and study before you answer. It is not France or Germany.
Duitsland is de grootste nettobetaler, Nederland is alleen maar de grootste nettobetaler per capita.
There's a difference!
-Hugo
Netherlands are so "big" for gdp per capita because they are a TAX HAVEN, who have a cunning strategy for attracting the multinational companies to be relocated to Holland and pay less taxes there, thus literally stealing dozens of billions euros each year to other european "brothers".
@@IntoEurope ça ce voit
We in Poland still have in mind that Germans are singing in their 5th verse of their anthem: Great Germany, from the Meuse to the Neman. Check out where Neman river is laying!
Absolute rubbish
We all know it's Uncle Sam!
This video is unnecessary. There is not EU without France and Germany. You need both.
Germany leads the EU. US also has control over many EU affairs and even Germany cant object there.
France can have some influence every now and then, provided that Germany is not strongly against whatever the French want to do.
Everyone else, waits for the decisions and falls in line. UK also used to have some influence but they left.
Ironically France shines whenever the US "controll" the EU since Germany doesnt really speak against the US, France doenst care much if it goes against what it wants zt least to a bigger extand
@@Freedmoon44 That is completely true, I have not noticed it as well imo
And yet the French have forgotten whom went to bat for them twice
Was it the Brazilians and Chinese? Pardon je ne me rappelle plus
We also remember who stoped us from spliting germany in diferent state because they wanted a string germany to mantained a balance of power on the continent.
I’ll second a lots of comments here. The only power that matters for all EU citizens is the EU institutions such as the EU parliament. We need EU parties and EU legislation directly from our MEPs with a governing body picked among elected officials at the EU level.
Sounds too much like democracy
@@catmonarchist8920 Luxembourgish progressives may not like it.
„France has a strong army“ Greetings from the Chancelor Scholz and 100 Billion Euros for the German Army
100 BIllion For US economy*
@@gordonchild273 As if. We produce most of our own stuff.
@@duwang8499 Yes like the F35
@@gordonchild273 Yeah that's the only big US bought thing. But we both know that it was Germany's last choice that it wanted to do.
I mean they *must* have a jet that is capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
@@duwang8499 The Rafale can also carry nuclear weapons, but then I know that behind these military contracts there are also diplomacy, trade and other aspects to take into account.
However, European countries should support their own industries first, in particular to maintain know-how and a healthy economy.
Germany makes the best tanks, France excellent planes, Italy frigates etc etc.