If Flanders gets independance, will the E.U. recognize it ?
If not, what will happen ?
If Belgium chose to break up, is there some reason the EU wouldn’t recognize it?
I’ll second that…why wouldn’t the EU recognize Flanders? I assume the break up will be by consent of the people of Belgium. But even if it wasn’t, unless there is a vicious civil war involved in the break up I can’t see why the EU wouldn’t recognize whatever governments emerge.
-XT
Is there an independence movement in Flanders?
Yup. All of a sudden lately it’s been in the news.
The EU recognising the existence of a Flemish government would be one thing. Membership of the EU by that new state would be a different matter. I wonder if there’s accomodation for such a situation in EU legislation? The possibility of a member state dividing surely cannot have gone unnoticed.
Scotland’s another place with ongoing muttering about independence.
There’s a theory - and it’s just a theory - that certain elements within the EU would be reluctant to recognize Flanders, based on the well known principle that one should never do anything for the first time. Specifically Spain (Gibraltar) and the UK (Scotland) don’t want to set precedents which permit sectors of their country to break away and instantly obtain full EU membership benefits. However, the Belgium/Flanders seems a lot more clear cut even than devolved, nationalist governed Scotland, so I don’t think it should be too great a problem. The two halves of Belgium don’t even share a common language, for example.
[Homer]
Damn Flanders!
[/Homer]
Why not?
http://people.reed.edu/~fisheri/immi/flanders.png
Ned’s a nice guy, in small doses…
Never been to Glasgow?
Why should the European Union care if Ned Flanders gets his own TV show?
[ Homer mode ]Stupid independent Flanders! [/ Homer mode ]
Does the EU even have the ability or authority to recognize it? Surely the decision of whether or not to recognize and establish diplomatic relations with a newly independent nation is left to the individual member states of the EU. Or are they bound by treaty to harmonize their recognitions? If so then that would be yet another obstacle to Turkey joining the EU, since it recognizes at least one state which the EU members do not (namely, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus).
Surely you mean Catalonia–Gibraltar can’t break away from something it isn’t part of.
I suspect that with the case of Scotland becoming independant many Brits wouldn’t mind too much but they would be bloody minded about giving Scotland a free run in staying in the E.U. because it would mean that Scots would enjoy all their priveleges in the U.K. now of living ,working and claiming welfare in England mostly but without paying U.K. tax or paying for their own defence ,for example out of Scottish taxes .
Which is exactly what one of our near neighbours has been doing ever since getting “independence” from Britain.
I.E We do what WE want to from now on but we expect you to give our large families jobs,homes and welfare in your country whenever we want it cos our own "independant " economy would collapse otherwise.
And it goes without saying we’re only going to pay a tuppeny fart towards our own defence cos we expect you to defend us against any serious external threats like Nazi germany or the Warsaw Pact.
So much for independance.
I speak as an AngloScot.
Maybe we just need a whole lot more duchies. Provide local control under the umbrella of Europe. Worked for the Holy Roman Empire. For Charlemagne, at least.
See Post #9.
And I had a picture.
NYAH!
SDMB re Flanders.
A “free run about staying in the E.U.” ? Ahem, it would not be for the remaining part of the U.K. to decide that, I think.
“Brits”? :dubious:
Just the same as any E.U. citizen may freely do anywhere in the E.U., then? I expect you’ll soon be back to have a “Daily Mail” style rant about Polish people, that being a more up-to-date and trendy rant than, say, Middle Eastern asylum seekers? (For now, anyway).
It is novel and interesting to learn that no-one in Scotland pays taxes for defence. However, if you are so very sure that Scotland does not pay for it, then I hope you would be very happy to take the Faslane base onto your doorstep. Oh, yes, and what “U.K. taxes”, would there be as there would be no “U.K.” any longer? What you think of a s the “U.K.” would then have to be a whole new entity, really: perhaps a "United Kingdom of England, Wales and a confusing bit of the north of Ireland, together with the utterly beautifully and intricately arranged and very convoluted relationships with the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands etc. " (Ah, shit, no, cannot use “et cetera” in case it might be a foreign interloper word, living where it has no right so to do. )
So it begins to looks as though this is but a slightly veiled whinge about Ireland, perhaps? Heavens, it’s so very good and kind of you to keep all these ungrateful countries going out of the goodness of your heart. 
Sort of hard to believe, one might say.
I quite liked this bit from the Flanders link:
Well, I suppose beer and chocolates sound pretty good. 
I do, however, regret the demise of Flanders and Swann. Now there was a good combination.
I believe Celyn has addressed adequately the main reason for me to post.
An issue with any division of Belgium would be what to do with Brussels, it is a majority French speaking city in Flanders.
I think that the remaining part of the U.K. would have a vote on Scotlands application for membership of the E.C. and would vote against it plus maybe do a little wheeling and dealing to get other member nations to vote against it ,though as another poster mentioned other E.C. countries would likely vote down Scotlands application for their own personal reasons such as discouraging fragmentation of their own countries and encouraging terrorist movements like the Basque seperatists.
Or were you under the impression that Scotland would automatically remain in the E.C. after leaving the Union?
Alright then ,the other Brits ,I’m hardly likely to be racist about the Scots when I’m half Scots myself am I?
You have the freedom to expect anything you like ,you do not have the freedom to put words into my mouth .
Stick to the points I have actually made instead of the points you’d hope I would make or give other readers of your post the impression that what YOU’VE said is what I think.
You seem a little confused ,I was making the point that an independant Scotland would almost certainly become a parasitic neutral like Ireland ,that is you would make no realistic contribution to defending your nation but come the crunch you would rely on England/Wales/Ulster to protect you against external threats and for their taxpayers to pay to keep the standing forces extant in the interim.
For the life of me I dont know where you got the “Scots dont pay taxes thing”
As to Faslane yes we’d be more then happy to have it on our doorstep ,the cities of Plymouth and Portsmouth have been fighting tooth and nail not to have their naval bases closed down in defence revues because of the employment they bring to their areas.
Royal Naval ships have routinely carried nuclear weapons for years and its never bothered anyone except the loony left so that wouldn’t be an issue.
As you claim to be speaking for the Scots I think it might be wise if you had a chat with one or two of the locals in the Faslane vicinity about their views on this.
I can imagine the reaction if H.M.G. said it was going to close down Fas tomorrow,I suspect that it wouldn’t be a happy one.
I really haven’t got any idea what relevant point your trying to make here.
Out of curiousity are you actually Scots yourself?
Or perchance someone of Irish extraction speaking on the Scots behalf?
I’ve seen that more then a few times before now not that theres anything wrong with that of course.
As to the rest of it I think your post has more to do with whats going on in your own head then to do with actually responding to things that I’ve actually posted so I’ll just leave you to it.
Defence Revues?
Ministers of Defence, First Sea Lords, Marshals of the Royal Air Force and Admirals, all camped up and telling jokes and simging jolly songs?
Yes please