Rumbling away throughout 2024 was EU threats to take action against Twitter/X for abandoning fact-checking. The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is clear on its requirements - so that conflict will escalate. If X won’t change, presumably ultimately it will be banned from the EU.
Meta have decided they’d rather keep EU market access. Today they announced the removal of fact-checking, but only for Americans. Europeans can still benefit from the higher standards the Digital Services Act guarantees.
The next 10 years will see the power of mis/disinformation accelerate with AI. Meta itself seems to be embracing this trend by purposefully integrating fake AI profiles into its networks. From now on it looks like the main battle-ground to deal with this is going to be the EU.
Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic don’t use the Euro. It’s really not mandatory, but it’s beneficial to all countries at comparable economic development level. I think Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Greece and perhaps Italy would have benefitted from using their own currencies for a while longer. The minimum wage on some of those countries is incredibly low and the goods prices too high for the Euro. This is not the case with Poland, for instance, where goods are cheaper.
The biggest issue with Canada is population, same as Ukraine and Turkey as of this moment. The EU is scared that adding a member state that has a population size comparable to the bigger states already within will create a power imbalance. This issue is getting more problematic as time goes on since our population is currently shrinking. If the EU takes in Ukraine, they will probably balk at adding a state as big as Canada anytime soon.
It is mandatory but some countries have opted to join it in the future. Only Denmark isnt required to join the Eurozone, everyone else is expected to join it(at some point). Denmark is the only EU country that has negotiated an opt-out.
Another issue is that any country can veto tax and foreign policies. Thats why Hungary is so problematic, with Orban blocking everything. Ultimately, the EU’s prime directive is the avoidance of war in a continent that has had way too many wars. You could argue for Ukraine and Turkey being relevant regarding that but i dont see Canada being relevant.
Honestly in political terms saying you’ll join at some undefined point in the future is not saying anything. That will be an entire new government who may or may not agree with it. Besides like another commenter said, everything about the EU is negotiable.
I was thinking maybe the problems with Canada would be more in matters of regulation voting, not so much wars or foreign policy. Canada has a different mindset, not exactly like Americans but in the same thought space, possibly due to their shared origins as an European colony with a vast continent to expand to and also because of US influence. Canadians just don’t like restrictive regulations. One could argue that equally as important as avoidance of wars and directly correlated is the regulation of commerce, seeing as the EU officially started as a coal and steel regulatory trade international organ. I imagine such a large body of population would clash with certain regulations we have in the EU, but nothing that couldn’t be worked out.
But organizations like the EU live and die on trade and that’s why i ultimately i don’t see why Canada should try for the EU, despite me thinking they would be welcome. It’s why i think the commonwealth is kind of useless nowadays as an economic tool. Their primary body of trade is the Americas, with Asia and Europe being secondary markets. Too bad the US is too far up its own back to cooperate with anyone without ruining it with greed. In an equal partnership of open borders and free trade, US, Mexico and Canada would be huge.
Ukraine won’t join the EU