A view on the EU from Austria This week, I’m on holiday. My family and I are staying just south of Salzburg; it’s my first time in any EU country other than France since Brexit happened. I love Austria and think it’s one of the most underrated countries to visit in the world, particularly with young children. But I’m not turning this into a travel piece.
Great article. Those claiming or rather hoping the EU is going to collapse any time soon have been saying the same old thing for years. Nothing new to see here.
With some Brexiters ranting, it’s clear they want the EU to fail much more than wanting the UK to succeed.
Because for them, it’s just about ‘winning’ the argument in the way they supposedly won the 2016 referendum. For them to win the argument, the EU has to fail. Not the UK actually doing well or thriving.
This basic Brexiter argument has simply become a battle of survival. A fight to the death between the EU and the UK. And the only way to win is not to actually do better than before. But for the other side to fail. When Brexiters talk of the “EU about to collapse”, they don’t actually believe it. However, they need it to happen to justify their vote.
And even then, it’d not make their views any more valid. Because had the UK still remained in an EU that collapsed, it would hardly have mattered. Because, according to these Brexiters, the UK would be able to thrive on its own anyway! We would not have been affected.
The whole notion of the EU collapsing is extremely naive.
As I said in my other comment, nobody here on the continent wants to go back to having all these disruptive borders.
So even if the EU came to some kind of impasse or internal blockade of its governance, it would at best dissolve and immediately followed with a new organisation.
That organisation might not (initially) have the same set of members but I would be set up to retain the EU's most important achievements: the Single Market, Schengen and likely even the Euro.
So even from an outside perspective very little would change.
The Brexiters' dreams of either being able to 'pick off' isolated national markets or having the lead role in creating a successor organisation are simply delusional
I grew up in that part of Austria and I am happy to hear your liked it :)
But more importantly I grew up there during the 1980s and 1990s, when Austria had not joined the EU yet.
This is a part of the country that is so close to Germany that it belongs to the same cultural region.
If you go on an afternoon hike you can cross into and out of Bavaria several times without really noticing.
In some villages and towns further up north you change country by literally walking across a bridge.
In the times before EU and Schengen membership most Austrian trains would terminate in Salzburg main station and travelers had to disembark, go through passport control and board a train towards Germany.
Today regional and even local commuter trains have their routes end somewhere in Bavaria.
Nobody on either side of that border wants to go back to the old setup.
As it happens, we were driving into Salzburg from where we were staying, and I took a wrong turn and accidentally ended up crossing the border into Germany. Of course, that meant nothing more than an extra 15 minutes turning around and going the right way. I think Schengen is a wonderful thing.
Thanks for this, Brent. I appreciate the videos. Thanks for posting. I love the old school "Cryptic Slaughter" logo behind them - gives it a certain epic touch.
I live between Vienna and UK. My wife is Austrian and I am lucky in that she works for a UN agency. This means that I am entitled to a legitimation card which grants me the right to travel, study and work throughout Schengen. I also a 5 year Austrian residency card which I will extend. Every time I return to my Austrian home I am eternally thankful for my privilege and simultaneously furious, saddened, and depressed that we have had these freedoms removed.
If we do not rejoin by the time my wife retires I may have to consider acquiring an EU passport. If I get my German up to scratch I can apply for Austrian citizenship. Unfortunately, Austria is one of the few countries where you cannot have dual citizenship. It will mean I have to relinquish my British citizenship. As a patriot, and somebody already pretty pissed off about having my European citizenship stripped against my wishes, this is not something I really want to do.
I hope to see the perpetrators of this treachery investigated and brought to justice in my lifetime. I fear we will need a pretty robust revolution before that happens.
I agree that there is much to be welcomed in having constraints upon national sovereignty. It is akin to the insight that "liberty is parasitic upon order". Untramelled liberty is a dangerous thing, and likely to be destructive.
But is it true that it only makes sense to leave a huge trading bloc on your doorstep if it is "about to splinter into pieces"? This is an argument I had with my Brexiter brothers in 2016. I argued that the EU was here here to stay, but *even if it were not* it would be better to stick with it, A) to help prevent the shipwreck, and B) because the UK would be just as badly hit if it were within the EU at the time of collapse, or outside it. It is not not as if we would on a lifeboat in the one case, and going down with the ship in the other!
I moved my domicile to France following Brexit. I still spend a few months every year in Britain, and like you I love the country of my birth, but a succession of inept governments have done their best to ruin the place. In general I reckon that people in France have a better life.
I lived in Germany 3 times, 14 years in all and in NL for 6, subsequently for years most of my work was still in the EU. I prefer both Germany and the Netherlands to the UK - they are closer to being meritocracies, and most things actually work
NICK!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BRENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M GOING TO SEE CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER TOMORROW NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Brent! I take it you're still living in L.A.? Good news on the Cryptic Slaughter gig, hope they play "Sudden Death".
Absolutely!!!! Are you on Facebook or something like that?
I don't use it all that much, but yeah, I'm on Facebook. You?
Great article. Those claiming or rather hoping the EU is going to collapse any time soon have been saying the same old thing for years. Nothing new to see here.
With some Brexiters ranting, it’s clear they want the EU to fail much more than wanting the UK to succeed.
Because for them, it’s just about ‘winning’ the argument in the way they supposedly won the 2016 referendum. For them to win the argument, the EU has to fail. Not the UK actually doing well or thriving.
This basic Brexiter argument has simply become a battle of survival. A fight to the death between the EU and the UK. And the only way to win is not to actually do better than before. But for the other side to fail. When Brexiters talk of the “EU about to collapse”, they don’t actually believe it. However, they need it to happen to justify their vote.
And even then, it’d not make their views any more valid. Because had the UK still remained in an EU that collapsed, it would hardly have mattered. Because, according to these Brexiters, the UK would be able to thrive on its own anyway! We would not have been affected.
The whole notion of the EU collapsing is extremely naive.
As I said in my other comment, nobody here on the continent wants to go back to having all these disruptive borders.
So even if the EU came to some kind of impasse or internal blockade of its governance, it would at best dissolve and immediately followed with a new organisation.
That organisation might not (initially) have the same set of members but I would be set up to retain the EU's most important achievements: the Single Market, Schengen and likely even the Euro.
So even from an outside perspective very little would change.
The Brexiters' dreams of either being able to 'pick off' isolated national markets or having the lead role in creating a successor organisation are simply delusional
I grew up in that part of Austria and I am happy to hear your liked it :)
But more importantly I grew up there during the 1980s and 1990s, when Austria had not joined the EU yet.
This is a part of the country that is so close to Germany that it belongs to the same cultural region.
If you go on an afternoon hike you can cross into and out of Bavaria several times without really noticing.
In some villages and towns further up north you change country by literally walking across a bridge.
In the times before EU and Schengen membership most Austrian trains would terminate in Salzburg main station and travelers had to disembark, go through passport control and board a train towards Germany.
Today regional and even local commuter trains have their routes end somewhere in Bavaria.
Nobody on either side of that border wants to go back to the old setup.
As it happens, we were driving into Salzburg from where we were staying, and I took a wrong turn and accidentally ended up crossing the border into Germany. Of course, that meant nothing more than an extra 15 minutes turning around and going the right way. I think Schengen is a wonderful thing.
I fully agree!
Especially for a land-locked country like Austria with all its 8 neighbours being Schengen members as well :)
STILL IN HOLLYWOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Nick, I don't know if my response to my comment posted, so here are the videos of the Cryptic Slaughter gig that I uploaded to YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVPmRmLIB3k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4cE9DlMylo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7ojJ27sVoQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e45xnU0TzlI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u65UD9KO9VQ
Are you still in Hollywood or are you in another part of town?
Thanks for this, Brent. I appreciate the videos. Thanks for posting. I love the old school "Cryptic Slaughter" logo behind them - gives it a certain epic touch.
Forgot one linke - Set Your Own Pace - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u65UD9KO9VQ
Nick, Cryptic Slaughter was EPIC!!!!!!!!!! I put clips on on YouTube JUST SO I COULD SHOW YOU!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVPmRmLIB3k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4cE9DlMylo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7ojJ27sVoQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e45xnU0TzlI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7ojJ27sVoQ
I live between Vienna and UK. My wife is Austrian and I am lucky in that she works for a UN agency. This means that I am entitled to a legitimation card which grants me the right to travel, study and work throughout Schengen. I also a 5 year Austrian residency card which I will extend. Every time I return to my Austrian home I am eternally thankful for my privilege and simultaneously furious, saddened, and depressed that we have had these freedoms removed.
If we do not rejoin by the time my wife retires I may have to consider acquiring an EU passport. If I get my German up to scratch I can apply for Austrian citizenship. Unfortunately, Austria is one of the few countries where you cannot have dual citizenship. It will mean I have to relinquish my British citizenship. As a patriot, and somebody already pretty pissed off about having my European citizenship stripped against my wishes, this is not something I really want to do.
I hope to see the perpetrators of this treachery investigated and brought to justice in my lifetime. I fear we will need a pretty robust revolution before that happens.
One other comment:
I agree that there is much to be welcomed in having constraints upon national sovereignty. It is akin to the insight that "liberty is parasitic upon order". Untramelled liberty is a dangerous thing, and likely to be destructive.
Excellent piece.
But is it true that it only makes sense to leave a huge trading bloc on your doorstep if it is "about to splinter into pieces"? This is an argument I had with my Brexiter brothers in 2016. I argued that the EU was here here to stay, but *even if it were not* it would be better to stick with it, A) to help prevent the shipwreck, and B) because the UK would be just as badly hit if it were within the EU at the time of collapse, or outside it. It is not not as if we would on a lifeboat in the one case, and going down with the ship in the other!
I moved my domicile to France following Brexit. I still spend a few months every year in Britain, and like you I love the country of my birth, but a succession of inept governments have done their best to ruin the place. In general I reckon that people in France have a better life.
I lived in Germany 3 times, 14 years in all and in NL for 6, subsequently for years most of my work was still in the EU. I prefer both Germany and the Netherlands to the UK - they are closer to being meritocracies, and most things actually work