As a UK national I am very much in a minority when it comes to the EU. I am very much in favour of the organisation, even if I would agree that it needs an overhaul. It is by no means perfect, but simply running away and burying your head in the nationalist sand? No thanks. I am also among those who think that the UK should have signed up for the Euro, but as the UK is a devaluation junkie (whenever the economy seems to have problems - devalue the currency, either directly or indirectly, and don't tell me that governments have no influence upon this!), the powers that be will not like it.
Noticeable that it finds itself in the same club as the countries in the Eurozone that always used to be devaluation junkies (Spain, Greece, Italy), who are all having serious economic issues. Interesting isn't it that the UK wants to proudly strut like the German or Dutch or even the French cockerel while behaving like the southern European chickens.
Anyone questioning this - this week the pound (I always, appropriately, write that in lower case) has fallen under the 1.20 level against the "sick" Euro (note the upper case first letter) again, and is heading down steadily towards its all-time low of 1.13 (reached just before the start of the Euro Crisis Stage II). And as the British Finance Minister recently announced that there will be no recovery before 2018! And anyone wanting a historical perspective, the pound is now worth somewhere between 14 and 16% of what it was worth against its German equivalent in 1971 (asset depreciation over 40 years seen from the perspective of a German long-term investor in the UK?).
Anyway as a small businessman (now that is a real joke but anyway - I am making a living of sorts working for myself as companies will not offer me a real job in line with my talent and ability and pay me a real salary, which should be considerably more than what I make working for myself) I shall next week be availing myself of an opportunity that the EU offers to small business people.
This ruling is called officially EC or EG (depending upon the language you use) 861/2007. It is a procedure that is offered to people who have issued invoices amounting to less than €2,000 to customers in other EU countries who have failed to pay in a reasonable period of time - a Small Claims procedure covering the entire EU.
I have been waiting for months for payments from companies in Belgium (2BTranslated) and France (Juristraduction), which have not been forthcoming. Final warnings were issued by me earlier this month and if the money has not been sent by January 30th (6 days from now), I can proceed with a claim via the court here in Frankfurt.
No lawyer is needed, a ton of relevant documentation is. How much it costs to file the claim I do not yet know - I only checked today to find out where the court is, I shall have to go there to check costs and procedures for handing in the complaint.
Very useful in its way. Quite what I would do if I were chase up an invoice for 1,200 Euro from a company in a non-EU country (Switzerland, Norway, Canada, the USA), I do not know. One more argument in favour of the EU! Apparently this ruling (actually a European Parliament ruling, not a European Commission directive) is not well known and is hardly used. Which says a lot about the EU - they are pretty lousy when it comes to publicising their good points!
Meanwhile David Cameron, the UK's excuse for a Prime Minister, came up yesterday with the interesting offer of holding a referendum on EU membership if his party wins the next election, which will not be held until 2015.
As one German politician shrewdly noted this morning, that sounds like an election ploy, more to do with UK politics than the EU. Cameron is facing an election in which his party can offer little by way of economic good news for a very long time (see the comments of his Finance Minister above), not much else that sounds positive (he can count himself fortunate that the US and Israeli elections went the way they did, so the pressure to participate in a war with Iran has diminished), and has to play to the Europhobia that has been constantly stirred up in the UK (notably by the Murdoch press and other tabloids) and the extremely insular nationalist parties who offer Utopian solutions (and irrelevant memories of the now defunct Empire) which have eventually no practical way of working in the real world.
If the issue were that significant, wouldn't a referendum in 2014 be just as feasible? As it is, it sounds like "well vote for us and I will give you a referendum. Meanwhile you can forget the economic misery and our inability to resolve it!".
And while we are having referenda, Mr Cameron, why not offer the people the opportunity to save billions and have a referendum on scrapping the extremely expensive and next to useless (in practical terms) independent nuclear weapon? There are security concerns out there? Well, it would have been really useful during the siege in Algeria last week or in helping the French in Mali, wouldn't it?
No? Did I miss summat then?
Anyway as I do not want to see my future in Germany placed at the whims of a British electorate whose judgement I have not been able to trust for over 30 years (how many people actually understand the issues involved with leaving the EU?), and the influence that the pernicious Rupert Murdoch will have on that, it is time to start refining my German accent, widening my range of vocabulary and also to start looking at the procedures for applying for German nationality.
That means 2 years to the next UK election, if I live that long. On the day that the Tories win the 2015 election with this silly bribe, I will commence the procedures to become a German national. Hopefully everything will be ready by then and we will have the money available. Of course they may well lose the election (if the economy stays where it is, that cannot be ruled out). Then it may be time to see what Labour offers as an alternative, although the case for changing nationalities is strong in itself regardless.
Author's update 22/12/2021 - well we all know that Cameron kept his promise, that the referendum did take place, the British public - egged on by Murdoch and his nutcase cronies in the tabloid press - voted for parochialism and insularity. I did also follow through on my promise, but it was 2018 that I set the wheels in motion to become a German national, and I became a naturalised German citizen on January 2nd, 2019. Dual national actually (the German government did not insist upon me giving up my British nationality, but I use my German ID card whenever needed and when travelling invariably use my German passport). The UK one (still with the words "European Union" on it) is sitting redundantly in a cupboard drawer somewhere, waiting to expire and not be renewed.
They can try (and fail) to take me out of Europe, but they cannot remove the European from me.
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