MikeJ

Many people here would tell you that prices went up considerably with the euro. In reality, there was no significant impact on most prices, it's just the psychological effect of the price of something people buy often (like a cup of coffee) going up that causes them to say so.

Curb Zone

 

Mirage77

Well then the Euro has done its job cleanly then, by allowing seamless cash exchange all across Europe. I'm very impressed with the EU - it is such a strong organisation of countries which are amicable (most of the time) and willing to adopt changes that allow for regional synergy. Like allowing borderless travel and the Euro dollar. Not the same can be said for any other grouping in the world.

Choleric

I can think of one thats about 230 years old....


Anyways, Im sorry Eni, is there any impact on the taxes you pay or anything or is that still remain in the sovreignty of your country?

MikeJ

Taxation is (mostly) for the member states to decide. I think only the VAT (value added tax) rules come directly from the EU, and even the amount of that tax can be freely chosen by the members.

Each member state pays fees based on its GNP, VAT income and customs income. For example, in 2003, Finland paid the EU €1 billion in GNP-based fees, €300 million based on VAT and €100 million based on customs income, making a total membership fee of €1.4 billion. During the same year, Finland received a total of €1.33 billion in agricultural subsidies, structural funds, research money etc., meaning that the actual cost of the membership was €70 million.

Most of the new members receive a lot more than they pay, while the wealthier old members (Germany, France) pay a whole lot more than they receive.

Choleric

Interesting, Thanks Mike, I need to read up on the finer details of how the EU works, this stuff intrigues me.

Mirage77

What world grouping is that?

Harry Plopper

EU is a strange creature. Basicaly the idea is based on a free flow of capital, goods & people among the members (and also some political ones: eg. some common foreign policy, agricultural policy, interior affairs (immigration) policy etc). But ... There are several sub-systems. Eg. EU has now 27 members. Only 13 among them are in Eurozone (using single currency: Euro; others haven't met criteria for adopting the Euro, some ie. UK, Denmark & Sweden refused to use Euro). 13 of EU members (+ Non-EU Iceland & Norway) are in "Schengen zone" which allows completly free flow of people (no border control between Schengen members). But those 13 are not the same as the one in Eurozone (eg. Sweden & Slovenia are switched). Also there is no free labour market since some of the old EU members (15 of them) have applied some restrictions to labour force from some new EU members. Also there are some other common policies (eg. agricultural etc) but with many exclusions.

So, EU is not a homogenous union, but there are men sub-unions (eg. Eurozone, Schengen zone, free labour market etc).

Regarding sovereignty: each EU members should comply to some common EU rules & standards, but some have gained some exceptions during the association negotiations. All members are obliged to adopt Euro & enter Eurozone when met all the convergence criteria (except UK & Denmark - who have a right to refuse entering Eurozone). Also all EU members are obliged to enter Schengen zone when meeting the security criteria.

Eurozone have common monetary policy (eg. setting common interest rates), while fiscal policy (public spending & tax policy) is still in a domain of each country. But every country is obliged to stay within convergence criteria (low inflation, low budged deficit etc). Also every EU member is obliged to pay some of its GDP to common EU budget which then redistributes the money to poorer parts of EU (you get a "free" money for a specific project). So, rich EU members are net givers (giving more than receiving back), while poorer ones are net receivers (receiving back more than giving into EU budget).

It's complicated.

Btw, use Wikipedia to find more interesting info about EU, Eurozone, Schengen etc.

Harry Plopper

Here in Slovenia there was a very well executed campaign in media against unnecessary price increase. So, therefore only few sellers have rounded their prices; most of the prices are still calculated to the cent precision (eg. €2.73 instead of €2.80 or even €3.00). That's a good thing since not many prices in stores have increased, but instead we have to deal with tiny little coins. A lot of coins.

But some prices have increased anyway. Eg. some services: drink & food in restaurants & bars / pubs / night clubs, fast food, snacks, movie tickets, wellness & spa services, hairdressing, parking tickets, etc. These prices have been rounded to eg. 50 cents, or even whole Euros. So, some leisure activities & services are a bit more expensive now (some with low nominal prices - eg. about 1 or 2 Euros - have increased even up to 30%). But still - despite increases - the prices are not too high.

Choleric

USA

Choleric

Really interesting stuff, has there been any problems with corruption, like wasteful spending, i.e. nations using money they recieve from EU to build stuff like roads to nowhere or other pork-barrel projects?

Curb Zone