- The six countries that set up the European Economic Community ('EEC') in 1957 were Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium: countries that had been devastated by the Second World War. The driving force behind the creation of the EEC was the need for an economic and political pact between Germany and France, historically the main instigators of European wars.
- Since then 22 more countries have joined, many for less idealistic reasons. In any given year, typically only three or four countries are net contributors to the EU budget. Germany is always the top contributor, with the UK usually in second or third place. Aside from the top three or four contributors to the EU budget, most countries take far more out than they put in.
- To illustrate the point, 2004 saw the accession of ten smaller - mostly poor - Eastern European countries to the EU. They joined for the financial and other benefits they could obtain. The same is true of those countries waiting to join such as Macedonia, Turkey, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.
- The countries lining up to join are certainly not doing so in the hope of making donations to the massive EU budget. They want cash handouts, and to be able to export their excess populations and unemployed to Europe. Turkey, for instance, is not even in Europe (97.0% of its land mass is in Asia). It has a population of 77 million, and if it joins it will be the second most populous, and the poorest, country in the EU.
You can work the rest out for yourself!
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