The EU is not going to just sever ties with them even if they do exit hard.

In a hard Brexit much of London's financial services will flee

They're still on good terms with NA and a sizeable chunk of the Commonwealth

Because attempting to sever ties with such an enormous market is going to put MORE pressure on other member states to leave the EU.

As i see it the only reason why EU is still putting up with Britain is over the Irish border

The reason why Germany is putting pressure on them is because the EU is probably screwed if they leave

Why should Italy, Spain, Poland, etc, all deny themselves the profit of trading with the UK, just to appease a bunch of drunken Belgian sots and Mutti Merkel?

Germany and France don't want to be the ones to pick up the cheque

They want that expense shared

But that's exactly what a hard brexit would force them into

The reason you have asshats like Verhofstadt having tantrums in the EU parliament is because they know how weak their position actually is.

^

Their dream of bloodless conquest is crumbling.

They get to be nobles lording over a collapsing ruin.

I'm curious why everyone would want to deny Europe a trading union when we reap the benefits of one every day in the US?

The reason they're pushing to hard and openly for an EU army, something that for years they swore up and down they'd never try, is because they know in a few years they're going to need it to keep their vassal states from rebelling.

EU is not a trade union

I don't want to deny the EU a trading union.

Um, that's exactly what it is

But the EU is not a mere trading union.

EEZ was the infant stage of the EU

It's a nascient superstate.

It's also a currency union, again like the US

Please.

The prior agreement they had was a trade union. The EU is a continental government looking to form a military

If it was merely a currency union and free trade zone they wouldn't need 1% of the regulations and laws they've put in place

They are looking for the security that comes from being a federation of some sort

They went about it in entirely the wrong way

And again, you wouldn't have Verhofstadt pounding the desk and screaming for member states to cede their sovereignty to the EU (i.e., him).

You wouldn't have the EU army. You wouldn't have Germany and Belgium trying to punish member states for enforcing their borders.

All the fanciful rantings on the internet aside, no one can seriously conceive of war between Texas and California. The idea is to make war between Germany and Poland just as ridiculous a concept.

None of this shit has anything to do with free trade or a shared currency.

Their federal branch is unelected, unaccountable and full of drunks and career powermongers, the states they have sway over have made incompatible economic decisions

It's making war between the two more likely actually.

Eastern Europe is getting fucking pissed

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-migrants-poland/polands-government-rejects-u-n-migration-pact-idUSKCN1NP1HO

Because the EU is chiding them for gutting their independent judiciaries and muzzling their press?

Poland doesn't want Germany forcing migrants on them. Poland is sick and fucking tired of Germany and Belgium trying to dictate their internal affairs.

Because the EU was trying to pressure them into taking on migrants

But they signed on knowing their were rules to the club

I'll admit I'm not sure on the migrant part 😕