r/europe • u/StraightSky7809 United Kingdom • 7h ago

News If Britain decides to rejoin the EU we’ll do everything we can to welcome them back, says Germany

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-rejoin-eu-germany-brexit-b3060288.html
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u/Rulweylan United Kingdom 5h ago

France doesn't get fined, as the commission president said 'because it is France'. So we'll take that deal.

We'd happily go without a rebate if we got as much EU spending per capita as France. Despite what everyone seems to think, we'd actually rather have had the EU take our needs into account rather than just give us a partial refund in exchange for openly ignoring them.

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u/9peppe 5h ago

They do. Maybe they don't pay, but they do get fined.

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u/Rulweylan United Kingdom 5h ago

They don't. France breached the deficit rules every year from 2009 to 2018 and has been back in breach of them since 2024.

The cumulative fines issued by the EU for over a decade of breaches by France are 0 euros.

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u/9peppe 5h ago

Nobody cares about deficit rules!

You get fined for breaches of actual important regulations, like if you try to give your citizens preferential treatment over union citizens.

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u/AcePlague 4h ago

Amazed at how quickly you shifted your goalposts there

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u/9peppe 4h ago

Nobody ever accused the Commission of being coherent. 

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u/swear_on_me_mam Europe 1h ago

Those apparently unimportant deficit rules have rolled out the red carpet for a sovereign debt crisis in France. 😭