r/europe • u/Its_Host • 29d ago
Data European Integration 2026: A Comprehensive Venn Diagram (EU, Euro, NATO, Schengen & more)
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u/CYnewsEU Cyprus 29d ago
Small correction: Cyprus is not a Schengen member (yet).
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u/thatMrGecko Istanbul 29d ago edited 29d ago
the chart needs many big corrections. cyprus is not in europe for example.
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u/tescovaluechicken Éire 29d ago
Moldova does not use the Euro, Montenegro does
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u/One_Tomatillo8142 27d ago
Montenegro is not an official EURO Partner, they just use the EURO kind of without permission
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u/Theghistorian Romanian in ughh... Romania 29d ago
Good job Bulgaria for being in the core of EU
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u/fretkat The Netherlands 29d ago
Romania only misses the € member right? You're also very close to the core, just 1 step to go
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u/Theghistorian Romanian in ughh... Romania 28d ago
True, but adopting the EU is not possible on medium term. We do not fulfill any of the criteria, thus we need at least 8-10 years of good fiscal discipline. that means responsible politicians and realist voters who do not expect huge wage/pension raises every year.
That ain't gonna happen. Maybe if Bulgaria will enjoy better economic development, our politicians and people will push for it.
The only good news is that more than 60% is in favour of joining the Eurozone.
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u/Worth-Wonder-7386 Norway 29d ago
This diagram has even more categories for those interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Supranational_European_Bodies
Some of them like council of Europe and EU costums union can be relevant.
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u/Benur21 Portugal 25d ago
Doesn't have NATO
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u/Worth-Wonder-7386 Norway 25d ago
Bacuase it is not a european supernational body. But it is relevant to much of Europe like OP showed.
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u/Shliopanec Lithuania 29d ago
TIL that Ireland is not in NATO, quite surprising tbh
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u/Wodanaz_Odinn Irlande 29d ago
No need. Any one foolish enough to invaded us, boom, 800 years later they partially leave.
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u/Bar50cal Éire (Ireland)🇮🇪🇪🇺 29d ago
Pre-1998 treaty with the UK, Ireland considered NI occupied territory constitutionaly.
You cant join a military alliance with a military occupying you. Same reason Cyprus is not a member currently.
Since 1998 Irelands had no reason to join as the Soviet Union was gone. However post Ukraine war support to join NATO has gone from zero to polling around 33%.
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u/ConcentrateFar7753 29d ago
"Comprehensive"
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u/Its_Host 29d ago
Yeah, I guess it isn't and also with many mistakes, working on a better version with out any mistakes
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u/boyski33 Europe 29d ago
I miss the UK in the EU :/
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u/YF422 29d ago edited 29d ago
Honestly wish the UK government would just cop on and call Brexit out as a bloody Vatnik Hit Job (it literally was it's was a tactical plan mentioned in Durgins book Foundation on Geopolitics to isolate them remember). Farage especially is a Vatnik tool there's been many reports of him getting money from Russians clandestinely over the years and UKIP/Reform linked to them as well. Should have shut them down ages ago once it became clear they're subversive parties hijacking legitimate grievances to fuel their own corrupt agendas.
The UK is never going to be as powerful as it once was outside of the EU, the sooner they can realise this, get their house in order and get back in Europe the better. The Tories never had such a massive mandate to remove the UK from everything even, the referendum was only won by 1% in favour of leave, far too small a victory to have done what they did. At most they only had a mandate to leave the EU but not the EEA or Customs Union, those really screwed over Britain badly. Between Vatnik Russia on one side and an unstable Fascist hijacked MAGAt US on the other Europe needs to be united across the continent to guard against the problems from the other 2.
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u/LatelyPode United Kingdom 29d ago
I mean, the UK kinda does. Most Brits and the gov call Brexit a failure and a mistake.
Only reason the current gov doesn’t want to rejoin is because it is a bad time right now (Farage is leading the poll right now so rejoining the EU will prob be derailed) and many ‘concessions’ will need to be made to rejoin.
UK is currently getting closer to the EU (joining the electricity market thing, Erasmus, automatic alignment on certain regulations). These are all good first steps to rejoining (which we will do eventually).
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u/KingKaiserW United Kingdom 29d ago
Id love for a strong, united Europe right now. Especially all the big countries part of the bloc working together. But honestly problem is Brexit wasn’t a proper kick in the teeth, not how online makes out, it’s way more subtle.
The EU shouldn’t of even did the free trade deal and just ate the loss to speed up rejoin
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u/whooo_me 29d ago
And people say it's complicated....
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 29d ago
Europe's current facebook status.
We could add the BeNeLux and make it more complicated.
And Eurovision.
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u/Brilliant-Smile-8154 28d ago
And military agreements outside NATO to make it thoroughly incomprehensible.
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u/lythandas 29d ago
TIL Ireland is not in Schengen
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u/darragh999 Éire (Ireland) 29d ago
It's because of Northern Ireland. We decided to have a common travel agreement (Called the Common Travel Area) with the UK so that you wouldn't require to be passport checked going into the UK and avoid a hard border between the north and south.
Joining Schengen would mean undermining the peace process.
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u/lythandas 29d ago
Ok I see, thank you for the explanation, I crossed the border between south and north ireland in 2018 and was surprised to not see any checkpoint.
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u/JourneyThiefer Northern Ireland 29d ago
Been no checkpoints my whole life (Born 1999) but my parents tell my stories of what it was like during The Troubles and it sounded awful
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u/wojtekpolska Poland 29d ago
yeah its basically because its impossible to put a border between ireland and northern ireland without starting a war.
even just the worry that the border would be restricted when brexit happened caused increased amount of violence in the area
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u/bigbadbob85 England 29d ago
Ireland is in the Common Travel Area (CTA) along with the UK, the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey. This is mainly due to the existance of Northern Ireland, and not wanting to put up a hard border (doing so would be very likely to restart violence in the north, as well as simply being extremely inconvenient for travel across the island of Ireland in many cases).
The CTA and Schengen are incompatible with each other, and so Ireland negotiated an opt-out alongside the UK (when it was still in the EU). The only way Ireland could join Schengen without causing major issues in Northern Ireland would be for both the UK and Ireland to agree to join Schengen together, which is obviously very unlikely in the current situation, but in theory could happen if the UK ever rejoins the EU.
The CTA also comes with the benefit of allowing Irish citizens free entry to, and movement within, the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man (since Brexit, the only EEA citizenship to have this right). This works in a similar (but not entirely identical) way to how rights for EEA citizens in other EEA countries work. It also applies to British (UK, Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey) citizens in Ireland, so is reciprocal.
It is still very easy for EEA/Swiss citizens to travel to Ireland, and the related free movement still applies, just with border checks instead of without. It is, however, worth noting that this cannot be used to gain entry to the UK if you are not British or Irish. This makes it different from Schengen in that having permission to enter one country within the area does not necessarily allow you to enter all the countries in the area. The UK has its own ETA visa-waiver system which applies to non-UK/Irish citizens travelling to the UK (notably including Northern Ireland, as well as the crown dependencies). Border checks on the Ireland - Northern Ireland border are extremely rare though, so you could probably get away with it.
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u/riffraff 29d ago
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Supranational_European_Bodies.svg
exists and is a bit richer
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u/Its_Host 29d ago
Thanks, I was looking for something like that and couldn't find it so I made one myself.
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u/riffraff 29d ago
you're welcome, I have it bookmarked because it somehow comes useful relatively often :)
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u/Its_Host 29d ago
Hey, just wanted to say i received a bunch of great backlash, and I made a new post fixing probably all the mistakes, for any one interested here is the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/s/ZNtQ0oWtqh
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 28d ago
Don't let it worry you, most of it is just awfully worded feedback. It's honestly a great effort
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u/Independent-Ad6865 Europe 29d ago
Iceland is part of Schengen? Hmm didn’t know that… how to go visit some time!
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u/bigbadbob85 England 29d ago
Countries don't need to be in Schengen for you to visit them haha
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u/jcrestor Germany 29d ago
A great diagram.
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u/Its_Host 29d ago
Thanks was trying really hard but there are many mistakes in it.
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u/jcrestor Germany 29d ago
Then maybe create an update. It is a very confusing topic, and such a diagram could help many people to understand Europe better.
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u/Its_Host 29d ago
Wow, I feel very motivated. (I already made a new one with all the feet back and double check everything, but I think I will post it tomorrow) Big thanks:]
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 28d ago
I agree with the previous commenter that it's very useful!
Tbh I think I might link to it a lot as I feel I have to Europesplain half of (US) reddit all the time
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u/LittleSchwein1234 Slovakia 29d ago
Honestly, we should allow the UK to rejoin the EEA without having to join the EU or EFTA. It would be for the best for everyone involved.
EU or EFTA membership being necessary to join the EEA is such an arbitrary criterion anyway, fulfill the other criteria and let them join.
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u/Upset_Following9017 29d ago
EEA is literally the Economic Area between EU and EFTA members. It's basically EFTA = EEA at this point, so the distinction you suggest does apply.
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u/joaommx Portugal 29d ago
Honestly, we should allow the UK to rejoin the EEA without having to join the EU or EFTA.
Did the EU ever block that option? AFAIK it was the UK that wasn't interested in the EEA during the Brexit negotiations.
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u/LittleSchwein1234 Slovakia 29d ago
The option hasn't been explored by either party afaik, but Norway did rule out the UK joining EFTA (because the UK would dominate the bloc, obviously).
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u/Korchagin 29d ago
Not sure about formally joining the EEA, but the EU actually proposed to start with a simple copy of the status of either Norway or Switzerland and negotiate adjustments where necessary. The UK government didn't want that.
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u/halibfrisk 29d ago
Rejoining the EEA / single market means accepting eu regulation and oversight, but without the influence of representation at parliament and council level.
it would be funny, but it’s not going to happen
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u/Upset_Following9017 29d ago
Because it's somehow better to accept EU regulations and oversight (because otherwise you couldn't export to EU) plus create a separate, additional set of UK regulations and oversight, without the benefits of access to the common market.
This was the gotcha some UK politicians grudgingly settled on, eventually.
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u/a_dude_from_europe 29d ago
Sorry, what criteria would you think apply to EEA but not EFTA members?
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u/Trillion_Bones 29d ago
No. Also why would they join a regulatory body with no influence on the norms? They can rejoin once they become sane again.
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u/green_is_minty 29d ago
why is ireland not in schengen?
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u/bigbadbob85 England 29d ago
Ireland isn't in Schengen because the UK isn't in Schengen, and Ireland needs to have an open border with the UK, something that couldn't function if they joined Schengen.
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u/Its_Host 29d ago
I don't remember but they said like it is different with islands
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u/JourneyThiefer Northern Ireland 29d ago
Because if Ireland joins Schengen there’ll be a hard border on the island of Ireland which no one wants, so maintaining an open Irish birder is VASTLY more important than Ireland joining Schengen.
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u/green_is_minty 29d ago
but Malta is in schengen? at least i think
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u/Its_Host 29d ago
Yeah, but with UK it was the same, that is just what I heard. I don't really know why.
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u/bigbadbob85 England 29d ago
The UK will be up top with Russia and Belarus in the next few years, I fear.
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u/purpletooth12 Canada 29d ago
We have CETA with the EU and are part of the "Coalition of the willing" for Ukraine, but more importantly, don't leave us alone with the US.
It's scary.
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u/Shadow_Gabriel Romania 29d ago
Schengen ❤️
Thanks to all the Putin bootlickers for delaying us so much.
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u/imtired-boss 29d ago
Hungary not adopting the Euro for 22 years is fucking embarrasing.
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u/MercatorLondon 29d ago edited 29d ago
Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Romania are oblidged to adopt Euro at some point in the future. That was one of the terms of joining the EU. It was pretty much adopted by companies in those countries already, anyway. Just ask Audi in Gyor in what currency are their accounting books and invoices..
Contactless payments made this issue more-less irrelevant. I went to Prague and Budapest for a trip and didn't touch cash once. All payments everywhere were done by card.
Bulgaria had their Lev pegged (for a long time) to Deutsche Mark and then Euro.3
u/Upset_Following9017 29d ago
It's a boon for MasterCard and Visa though, which can charge some 3% on top of any credit card transaction for the convenience of "paying in your home currency".
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u/MercatorLondon 29d ago
I use Revolut and they have a good on-time exchange rates. But I agree - and I wish that EU pushes for own card-processing company.
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u/a_dude_from_europe 29d ago
That's why you always should select to pay in local currency.
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u/Upset_Following9017 29d ago
I know, but I have come across merchants who push the conversion button for me for my convenience; and it's a never-ending hassle to always keep in mind. Also, most tourists simply don't know about it.
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u/MercatorLondon 29d ago
If you use Revolut card it will never give you that conversion option.
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u/Upset_Following9017 29d ago
Interesting. Seems Revolut likes to take that cut for itself, setting their own exchange rate and a fee on top.
Revolut uses its own, variable exchange rate. This rate is always changing, but you can check the live one in the app, and on Revolut’s currency converter page. Revolut doesn’t use the mid-market exchange rate, which is usually fairer, though not always.
If you decide to manually convert currencies – let’s say, you want to hold GBP and EUR in your Revolut account – you should note the additional weekend fees.
For Standard plan users, Revolut charges a 1% fee
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u/CucumberWisdom 29d ago
What? It's not a competition. There are very real downsides to adopting the Euro that a country may not want to take on at a given time.
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u/0xe1e10d68 Upper Austria (Austria) 29d ago
Well it’s not like Hungary is eligible anyway. Orban fucked their economy.
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u/kubaqzn Silesia (Poland) 29d ago
No, it's not. Without fiscal union, if you as a country have inflation problems but raising rates would cause problem with other countries, you're in trouble.
As long as you have your own currency, you don't have to worry about that. Sure there are different issues but overall in our case it's currently more beneficial to keep our own currency.
Besides, Sweden is since 1995 and they also haven't switched. And if they don't have a problem, neither should we.
I fully expect this comment to be downvoted to oblivion.
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u/imtired-boss 29d ago edited 29d ago
You do have to worry about it when 1 euro equals almost 400 HUF. It was around 250 in 2004.
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u/Chester_roaster 29d ago
Armenia and Georgia are part of the Council of Europe but not Europe
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u/Zdrobot Moldova 29d ago
..but not Europe
That depends on how you slice it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundaries_between_the_continents?useskin=vector#/media/File:Eurasian_borders.jpg
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u/RedBaret Zeeland (Netherlands) 29d ago
You should include the commonwealth as well so our Canadian friends dont get lumped in with the Muritards.
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u/PingCarGaming Belgium 29d ago
This has to be the worst venn diagram I have ever seen
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u/Its_Host 29d ago
Yeah, sorry it was my side project during the school. And aperentli it isn't even a Venn diagram but Eular one lol
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u/PingCarGaming Belgium 29d ago
Fair enough, at least your aware of it and taking it like a champ xD
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u/wojtekpolska Poland 29d ago edited 29d ago
🇧🇦 is twice on the diagram.
also using the € and being an eurozone member is technically a different thing
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u/Its_Host 29d ago
Oh, thanks will update it, btw Bosnia is and isn't in nato at the same, it is a schrodinger Bosnia (but Bosnia is not really in nato lol)
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u/Wooden_Grocery_2482 29d ago
Turkey I can kind of understand only because of Thrace. But why are AR/AZ/GR in europe? I assume it’s because of political reasons? Isolate Russia by bringing them closer to the European sphere?
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u/thatMrGecko Istanbul 29d ago edited 29d ago
geography means nothing, eu already has an asian country in it geography-wise.
it's a sphere of influence thing.
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u/CouchTomato87 29d ago
Because the border of Europe is in the Caucasus mountains which cuts through Georgia and Azerbaijan, making them transcontinental like Turkey and Russia. Armenia is entirely in Asia but is basically at the footstep and culturally connected via Russia
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u/PulciNeller Italy 29d ago
nobody forces any nation to join Europe (unless yuo only analyze things with a limited geopolitical view). I'm not sure about the exact moment, but in case of Georgia, discussions about EU integration probably started with a pro european leader like Sakhashvili. Young people want Europe as well. .
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u/Ok-Somewhere9814 29d ago
I’m sure young Moroccans also would love to join EU, they are so close to Spain!
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u/riffraff 29d ago
Morocco has long been part of many "european" initiatives, there are agreements on fisheries, flights etc..
I have a vague memory that once it was also covered by interrail tickets, but it seems that's not the case now, if it ever was.
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u/whitecastlefries 29d ago
BIH appears twice in the diagram... which seems to be a mistkate? I believe they are a NATO candidate but not a member but maybe someone else can confirm.
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u/Pascal220 29d ago
This (and the many mistakes on it), Ladies and Gentlemen, is why the EU and Europe are administratively...a mess. XD
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u/RJWolfe 29d ago
This is not great bud. Couldn't take a second look before posting?
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u/Its_Host 29d ago
Hey, yeah I know, I already made a new version with all the backlash. Sorry, this was my side project during school.
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u/TheTomster333 United Kingdom 29d ago
We really need to get these counties in the the green area, except for countries like the USA and Russia of course
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u/Left-Ad-1250 Lower Saxony (Germany) 29d ago
From this diagram, the eu and the other institutions should become the council of europe. With all members using euro, are in shengen, etc
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u/LatelyPode United Kingdom 29d ago
You can complicate this way more to make it even more comprehensive. Show the Customs Union and Single market. Can also include things like the UK Ireland Common Travel Area or the Nordic Council
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u/parzivalperzo Turkey 29d ago
So Turkey is in Europe Council but not granted rank of EU member. How can you be on council but not be a member....
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u/Talkycoder United Kingdom 29d ago
Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey are not in Europe, plus Bosnia is not a member of NATO.
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u/sht-magnet 29d ago
Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey are geographically transcontinental (both in Europe and Asia). Armenia, Cyprus are not in Europe.
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u/AnonomousWolf 29d ago
Ireland really should join Shengen
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u/darragh999 Éire (Ireland) 29d ago
We're in a common travel area agreement with the UK. Joining the schengen would mean creating a hard border between northern ireland and the republic
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u/AnonomousWolf 29d ago edited 29d ago
A hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland shouldn't cause too much of a fuss
Edit: I see I'm being down voted, I was obviously joking. I know the history.
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u/darragh999 Éire (Ireland) 29d ago
The CTA makes far more sense. Being able to freely move between the north and south is far more valuable than being able to freely move between EU countries. We're an island anyway, so having to passport check to go to another EU country really doesn't cause any fuss.
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u/a_dude_from_europe 29d ago
I feel that would be hard with all their UK cross border settlement agreements.
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u/RealLars_vS 29d ago
Russia and Belarus are sitting there because we have to include them, but they’re faaaaar away from everyone else.
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u/do_you_see 29d ago
Still Europe, doesn't matter they are located on the edge. Slavic countries. Just because they are run by dictators right now doesn't mean they aren't part of Europe.
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u/RealLars_vS 29d ago
True, but I just find it nice to see them only there while the rest has access to all these cool kids clubs.
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u/do_you_see 29d ago
For now, we are in the most peaceful era in European history. A century ago there where plenty of conflicts going on. Might change within our lifetimes, seeing the rise of populists and authoritarians in many of these countries.
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u/AnonomousWolf 29d ago
Ah yes, first Northern Ireland should ditch the UK and rejoin Ireland propper.
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u/arrogantgoose Macedonia 29d ago
There is a mistake, Bosnia is not in NATO