EU were wrong
We would like to respond to several misleading facts in James Macintyre’s Scotsman 200 piece (22 February).
Firstly, he alleges that unemployment is 19 per cent in the eurozone. According to the latest Eurostat statistics, unemployment is 8.2 per cent in the EU-28 (and 9.6 per cent in the euro area).
Secondly, he incorrectly claims the EU’S accounts have not been signed off by the auditors this century. The European Court of Auditors has signed the EU accounts every year since 2007.
And thirdly, Mr Macintyre criticises the euro. The euro has simplified and made it cheaper for individuals and businesses to do business and travel in Europe. With the single currency, cross-border trade in the euro area is more profitable, less risky and easier. It is the second largest currency in the world after the US dollar, with one fifth of the world’s foreign exchange reserves held in euros.
For the first time since the 2007 financial crisis, all EU economies are expected to grow in 2017; GDP in the euro area is now higher than in 2007, just before the crisis; GDP in the euro area grew by 1.7 per cent in 2016, slightly more than the US over the same period (1.6 per cent).
The Eurozone now includes around 340 million people, making it the second-largest economy in the world after the US. In addition, more than 175 million people around the world use currencies that are at fixed parity with the euro. KÜLLI NURK Press Officer European Commission Office in
Scotland Alva Street, Edinburgh I cannot believe that anyone with any knowledge of European history could claim, like James Macintyre, that the EU has been a failure on all fronts. Seventy years of peaceful cooperation between governments, the opportunity for continent-wide contacts for citizens, especially the young, and the successful incorporation of former Soviet-bloc countries into an organisation based on democratic, liberal values, must surely count for something on the credit side of the balance sheet.there’s more to life than money.
Of course the EU is far from perfect but it will be a tragedy if the basic principles of its existence are undermined by Brexit and the continent reverts to the untrammelled nationalism of the past.
Almost every argument in Mr Macintyre’s article referred to the economic/financial problems of the euro zone, not the EU as such, and to blame the existence of corruption and non-payment of tax in some member countries on EU membership is surely a bit far-fetched. Anyone in the UK, whether farmers, local authorities or third sector organisations, who have been in receipt of EU payments, knows that the level of inspection is not something to be dismissed lightly.
Even at the purely economic level the UK has prospered as an EU member. We are apparently now going to find out if we can do as well as a freewheeling global economy doing deals wherever we can.
(DR) JOAN MITCHELL Bagbie Farm, Newton Stewart Thank you for printing the thought-provoking piece by James Macintyre. This highlights the real issue with the financially incompetent EU that David Cameron should have been attacking, rather than running away from the problem – to change an organisation, one must be inside it and work hard to improve the organisation.
The moment we, as the UK, decided to leave the EU, we ceded any opportunity to make the organisation fit for purpose. If we are forced by the SNP to go down the route of another “once in a generation” referendum, will there be three questions? To stay in the UK; to become independent; or to become independent of the United Kingdom, but still be ruled by the EU? Ideally, the UK will try to reach a balanced, negotiated settlement, as I feel the UK will not be the only country to take this route.
NEIL J BORLAND Glendrissaig Drive, Ayr