168
Former German Foreign Minister Gabriel proposes Canada's EU membership
(www-deutschlandfunk-de.translate.goog)
this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
168 points (97.7% liked)
Europe
1848 readers
1100 users here now
News and information from Europe ๐ช๐บ
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in !yurop@lemm.ee. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
(This list may get expanded when necessary.)
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @federalreverse@feddit.org, @poVoq@slrpnk.net, or @anzo@programming.dev.
founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
For the regulations, I think slowly changing them to fit to EU standards, so industries can catch up, would be the best.
As for exports towards the US, aren't there already institutions (like the Trade and Technology Council) used by US and EU for trade to be efficient despite regulation and standard diferences?
Of course, I don't much about anything, so I'm mostly throwing stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
Would Canada be obliged to switch to 230V mains electricity, or could it keep 110V?
Looked it up,no,they wouldn't. There are provisions for these cases (same for the UK and Ireland with their driving sides) in these regulations and most EU regulations in that regard are based in ISO anyway.
They might get funding for it from the EU, though,so it might be a fun thing to calculate the costs. Very likely it would be cheaper for Canada to slowly transfer away from it, anyway, as the rest of the world is not using it and with the US putting tarrifs on,it might be the better option.
Tbh, the "EU regulations" are often not that bad actually for the smaller user(and I work in healthcare where the medical device regulations seem nightmarish at first - once you understand them they are FAR easier than what we had before and FAR cheaper to follow than the US rules. My former employer - the world leader in their field- e.g. refused to sell in the US for that reason).
Guyana has 120/240V 50/60Hz depending on where you are so, no, not even France has a unified grid.
I didn't even think about that one as an effective barrier to trade. That would be a shit show of epic proportions. The most realistic solution would be to make all products dual voltage to protect the single market, either directly or through a transformer in their power cable, but that would increase costs for everyone.
Retooling the entire country would be a shit show at best, and prohibitively expensive, so they'd likely stay at their current spec. Also, energy trade is quite profitable, and for geographic regions it makes sense to keep standards aligned.
It's not about selling electricity, it's about having a single market for electrical devices. There's no single market if most products don't work in one country. Even different AC plugs are only allowed because adapters are cheap and using different plugs for Ireland and Italy is a minor change in the production line.
You grossly misunderstood what the single market means - there are of course absolutely different local regulations and customs that are used. Ireland (and the UK before they left) drive on the other side of the road, trains systems vary by nation, even electrical standards do - the single market in terms of norms means that they just have to all follow a general market admission will follow the same rules - e.g. a product needs to fully comply with the basic marke wide ruleset.
You do realize that many companies offer multiple or variable power supplies addressing different input voltages and frequencies, right? Most consumer electronics are functionally identical, they just have a varying types of charging cable mains adapters. Larger appliances and tools are a different story, but more manufacturers are offering variability in their equipment.
Most and all are different things.
If you want to be pedantic, have at it.
Italy and Denmark are only different for earthed plugs, IIRC. Outside of the former British Empire, unearthed plugs within the EU are standard.
Nah Italian sockets have a different prong spacing. It's close enough for europlugs to fit but those are only for low amperage applications.
If only it was realistic to export electricity from Canada to the EU.
It's theoretically possible with HVDC (high voltage direct current), as the AC -> DC -> AC transmission conversion allows linked grids to not have their AC waves synced, though that distance would probably be stretching the boundaries of distance.
Not really, no. There's a link in the works between the UK and Iceland, hopping to Greenland and then to Canada would actually be shorter distances. Mostly it hasn't happened yet because Iceland isn't much of a fan of it, they enjoy their cheap electricity and don't want to plaster their whole country in geothermal. Cable length isn't an issue.
The problem with slowly is that a Canadian membership is being discussed as an answer to Trump threat to torpedo the western economy during this year. It would be more productive to focus on what trade agreements can be done in that timeframe instead of focusing on a goal that would take decades.
Better slowly and supported by trade agreements than not at all (even with the trade agreements). Even if the US doesn't devolve into a dictatorship/autocracy.