It's Time to Change!

Spain.
Europe Arena 1: “European Union: Should it be an union of Nations or an union of People?”

It’s Time to Change!

Spain joined European Union in 1986 after, more or less, 10 years after the beginning of democratic transition. It was for us an open window to Europe, and it was shown as a great opportunity for us to improve our economy, infrastructures, commerce… Of course we saw that improvement: We were one of the less developed countries in that 80’s European Union so we got the major part of subsidies and grants of it. But, many years has passed since then. So, to what extent should the power of EU be?

From my point of view, EU has evolved into a bad way. May it be the government, or may it be the way I see it from Spain or just what I hear or read have influenced me.      I think that there are a few people which control most of the power and have forgotten what EU really is. They control us, we are just objects with more or less value. They are on the side of big business people which own multinationals (Remember that I’m talking about the actual EU government). They will always act in favor of them also if it looks that it is better for us, it will be always better for them. Countries also lose part of their sovereignty. Monetary one is important, I would like to see what would have happened if we had had the “pesetas” (old Spain currency) instead of euro: with the creation of Euro things got 2 or 3 times more expensive.               

However, EU is not only bad things: commerce has evolved a lot. The opening of EU borders has allowed us to have an easier way to open our market to other European countries. It has helped us, all of us, to maintain our standard of living, at least for the moment but not sure for a near future. Not only for economy has been the EU a help, it has given us the opportunity of cultural enrichment. There have been many programs in order to meet people from other countries, the sharing of different cultural opinions (which also technology and internet have played an important role on it) and other stuff.

So, in conclusion EU is an awesome way to unify people, it helps us to evolve our thoughts by knowing other points of view and cultures. But not only a union of people is needed, countries also need to be unified but to some extent. It gives use benefits when we talk about commerce and economy. However, in order to get a better EU, there is needed a change of government and the way of govern, in other case EU will recede politically and economically.

 By D.G., Spain
19 years old