If you could name only one thing, what would it be?
42 comments
The feeling of cooperation and unity. The feeling that I belong somewhere bigger than just the borders of my own country. If I was put in the room with different people from around the world: USA, Brazil, Nigeria, China, India, I would gravitate to the only Spanish or Finnish person in the room. Of course everyone loves the ease of travel, payment and using their mobile internet in other countries, but at the end of the day everyone subconsciously loves the shared goal of the EU: peace, wealth and stability.
Ability to travel easy within the EU. I can jump into my car and drive to 5-6 countries within a day, no border stops, very convenient.
I’ve never felt patriotic in relation to my country, but I’ve grown up feeling proud about being EU citizen and that’s because of the common goal of cooperation. I hope that people are still able to remember it’s not beneficial to fight each other on this continent.
How easy it is to travel (from a border/documentation perspective) despite all the countries being so different from one another.
Moving to another country and living there without the fear of visas
Ask any non-european in the EU, that’s what’s most important, that’s the main thing we’d lose without the EU, that’s what European workers in the UK lost with Brexit, that’s what UK workers in the EU lost too.
Having a visa is not impossible, but it reduces your powers as a worker
Erasmus, Schengen, the Euro and the fact that this is not the USA. We need to be a better union and a better continent than the alternatives that exist today. I don’t want the EU to become a military power that harasses everyone, nor a surveillance power that tries to access every bit of data about its citizens. I also don’t want to abandon the poorest; we need solidarity between people and between countries. That is how we do it in Europe.
I like it that my country is part of something bigger. It brings stability economically and other ways, too. It is like having an extended family with lots of common history. EU may have become a bureucratic monster to some extent but still I like the co-operation, common goals and values.
The freedom to travel, move or work anywhere in EU. Don’t like your government? Just move to a different one and try if the grass is greener.
It’s easier to answer with a “negative” example – what I don’t miss about pre-EU times. Before EU, when you went abroad, you went *proper* abroad. No common currency, no common systems, and so on. People didn’t necessarily know that Finland exists, or what it was. There was a lot of bureaucracy when dealing with foreign countries. It was sometimes rather petty and almost always pointless. An illustrative example: Roman Schatz, who is German, told of his experience in immigrating into Finland. He married a Finnish woman, and wanted to immigrate to Finland. He had to get a work permit. But, back then, the policy was that he had to demonstrate that no Finnish national could be hired for that task. So, the only job available to him was at a German-speaking nursing home. Mind you, he had zero experience with gerontology; he was a journalist. This is the sort of bureaucracy that I don’t miss. Besides, Finland was a small country, so large organizations had relatively little interest in doing business with us. This meant that any new technology would come here 1.5 years later than elsewhere, if ever, and was usually really expensive because of poor competition, costs of importing and small market.
It’s these small things that ultimately contribute to the biggest achievement the EU has, which is to instill the idea that we’re Europeans, not Ruritanians, and shouldn’t go to war with each other constantly. And not just war, often it was absolutely petty disagreements about things like import and export of butter, and such things, which provide no profit to anyone.
I love how the EU protects its citizens with its laws, unlike for example in the US where big profits are prioritised over individual rights and health.
The feeling of togetherness… Although I am a bit naive, and I know that the Westerners would see me as a filthy Easterner… Let me dream!
Edit: Also, Erasmus was grand. The best year of my life.
Ability to buy something from any EU country and have it delivered without any customs, import fees or extra taxes.
That the vast majority is aiming for, and OK with, putting their personal growth behind the common good. No one loves taxes but it’s generally OK because I’d rather pay them without ever needing the social securities we get than needing it once and not having it at all.
I just flew home after a few weeks on another continent. Before my flight back I said to my husband does it make sense I’ll feel more at ease and “at home” once I land in Dennmark where I had my connection flight, because its the part of the EU, just like my home country Croatia.
He said its exactly how he feels, too. We are at home in the EU.
I love how we overcame the hatred between European countries that had festered for a long time and instead now we have friendship and cultural exchanges between our countries!
I hope that we all feel more and more European instead of just part of one country within the EU.
Not EU, but it’s becoming a more attractive option than the US green card for migrants or even US citizens and their spouse looking for a new opportunity. In Philippines, nurses are choosing Germany over US
Free movement. Being allowed to go to other countries without being treated like the suspect of a crime is great.
No border checks in the Schengen area. When I’m in the mountains on the Polish/Slovak or Polish/Czech borderland, I can easily hike on cross-border trails without even spotting that there is any border. And air travels within the Schengen area are almost as straightforward as train travels.
This degraded a little bit due to the migration crisis, but as a public transport passenger, I haven’t experienced any border checks within the EU so far, maybe except for totally non-invasive checking of IDs on a train between the border stations.
Our variety, so many cultures, languages, so much history, stunning nature, beautiful cities and towns.
By traveling easy it allowed us to see we are not that different after all. We are all human beings wishing the same thing: peace, prosperity and common sense. The differences between countries made us wish to learn more, instead of hating each other because we are different. Overall I suppose EU helped us (or at least me) realize we have more things in common rather than things that divide us.
In a classroom not all children are the same nor are they good at everything. But they have the same goal of learning and growing 🇪🇺 good luck this weekend to our brothers in Moldova 💙💛❤
The fact that we are one species and uniting ourselves instead of dividing each other makes us stronger. EU is the exact proof of the fact that all countries benefit from both old and new members in many, many ways, from businesses to consumers, from social aspects to political aspects.
Think of your body: each organ has its place, imagine if all organs decided to work independently and not serve you and your needs. You’d be dead. I think of the EU as a body where each country plays its role and the entire ecosystem provides synergy, generating growth and helping all summed parts to thrive.
The cooperation between different countries. It helps us learn to work together as a continent and forge strong political connections with each other that we struggled with before the EU came around.
Imagine if we left the EU. That would be a ridiculous move wouldn’t it? Only an idiot would support something like that.
Schengen is pretty cool and has made the experience of touring in the EU as a musician a lot less stressful.
Unfortunately EU still lacks a spine in most fronts, and I wish the [DiEM25 ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Europe_Movement_2025)movement can obtain larger visibility in the years to come, if we still want to talk about pan-european democracy and culture.
On a general level: That it increases our power in global politics and negotiations.
On a personal level: No border checks (I live very close to Hungary and have crossed probably 100s of times).
On an emotional level: That it helps poorer counties catch up to ‘The West’ more quickly. It sucks they had to deal with dictatorships for so long.
Peace.
The founders assumed that if countries become economically intertwined they would stopping waging war against each other. Has been working fine so far.
EU laws. The fact that things are standardised, that Member States have to comply with requirements, etc. Environmental protection and many other things, for example, would be in a much worse state without the EU.
Europe’s history is a long series of often violent struggles between its various nations. The continent has been torn apart for centuries, culminating in the appalling two world wars in the last one.
To go from that, to a union of countries coming together in friendship and partnership to work collectively for their common good is an astonishing achievement. Within a single generation the political shape of a good chunk of the continent went from hatred and violence to cooperation and mutual prosperity.
It’s something to treasure, to protect from those who stir division, and for those of us unfortunately no longer a part of it, something to aspire to be a part of once again.
Trade and the single market. We are heavily export-dependent so being able to export goods and services more easily is a benefit.
Only one thing it’s almost impossible to name it, I would say it among culture, food, different languages and traditions. Every place has its own identity even though you’re 1/2 hours of flight far from them. As European myself, many things are easier compared to being a foreigner, many documents like ID and car license are acknowledged abroad and travelling is less complicated.
– EU standards that otherwise would be ignored if the country would not be a part of it.
– Schengen. It’s so easy to travel inside of the EU.
– Subsidies for many things. A not small part of my solar panels were covered by the EU.
– A sense of being part the european community.
Travel and foreign goods. I don’t *need* my passport to travel within the EU, which is nice. I can also enjoy a (relatively) cheap German beer if I want.
I like Schengen, consumer protection laws, and human rights laws in general. I also love how there are so many distinct cultures and languages within the EU. If your home culture doesn’t fit, you just move/study somewhere else relatively easily. My boyfriend came here (NL) years ago from Bulgaria, and he stayed and bought a home in the Netherlands because the culture fits him well. He’s got a Dutch soul. He’s even more frugal than the average Dutch person! It would’ve been more difficult to do all that without the EU. Also, the EU brought prosperity to most of us. Huge plus.
Edit: oh, and Erasmus. I went on student exchange to Ireland years ago. It was an amazing adventure, made possible by the EU.
freedom of movement, so many fit young women from Europe in London pre-Brexit having fun, no idea what its like now
Freedom of movement.
I grew up in Belfast and my whole childhood was “Catholics versus protestants.” Everything was you can’t go to this area, can’t be friends with that person, can’t go to that school, listen to that music, it’s from the wrong side.
Then in 2004 the old man next door and two Polish men moved in. People joked about them being Catholics and living in a protestant neighborhood. I couldn’t understand how they could “get away with it” until my mother explained “Polish people don’t care about all of that so it doesn’t really matter to them.” My mind was blown and I discovered there was a whole other world out there where people had different concerns than us, but in the future we could all mix and stop caring about our petty differences.
Aside of what people already said, I like that we have so many things in common, even if in the past 50 years the openess was far from what we see now. So if as a Romanian I travel in whole central Europe I see a lot of common things having as root the Habsburg heritage, if I go to France I see a lot in common with the cultural scene, given the tight ties that the young Romania society had in the mid 1800s till mid 1900s, if I go to Balkans I see a lot of the Byzantin heritage.
Is not quite “EU” specific, rather Europe
A lot of stuff. The peace and prosperity that’s been achieved plus the easy trade and travel. From my other perspective, I feel as if we have established something awesome and we need to defend what we’ve created from external threats.
I live in the UK and since leaving, I haven’t seen any improvement whatsoever. My passport is weaker, I can’t freely trade and travel with our nearest neighbours and overall it’s made everything cost more with more bureaucracy. Thankfully I had Irish ancestors so I managed to keep my EU rights.
The sense of equality. Massive and relatively efficient transport systems, health systems, sports and leisure facilities all built for the benefit of everyone not just wealthy people.
Educated people (for the most part) who understand political systems.
Quality of the food.
Way less toxic – them vs us political divides.
A prevailing sense that life is for living and not just for work.
The atmosphere. You can grab a beer in a bar or a bite to eat in a cafe without someone breathing down your neck looking for tips.
I cheat and name two things:
Personally I enjoy the freedom to travel just with my ID card.
But in general: PEACE. I really enjoy being friends with our neighbors.
Flying to another Schengen country with just my hand luggage is awesome. Get off the plane and just walk outside.
International shipping is great, no extra fees or anything, it’s just like buying local.
I also really like consumer protection. There’s no way my small country could implement stuff like mandatory 2 year warranty, or a single charger for all electronic devices. I’ve had two phones die after 1.5 years, I would’ve been out of luck elsewhere, but here I just brought them back to the store and they gave my money back. Full amount, no restocking fee or any other nonsense.
That it works for it’s initial intended purpose; to keep us from destroying our continent every few years. That was the intent of the EU when it was introduced, to bind our economies together so we wouldn’t want to wage war against each other. In that regard it’s been extremely successful.
passport power
the freedom to move, live, work, or study across 27 countries without begging for a visa is an underrated superpower
everything else—funds, policies, bureaucracy—comes second to that level of mobility
I really love the ease and freedom of movement, especially when you factor in the Euro and how familiar and easy it is to adapt to other nations. I like that there’s a bigger picture we’re all part of.
I like feeling that besides my little nation, there are sibling nations alongside us, sharing goals and values and a sense of togetherness, like a family of nations who have each other’s backs.
42 comments
The feeling of cooperation and unity. The feeling that I belong somewhere bigger than just the borders of my own country. If I was put in the room with different people from around the world: USA, Brazil, Nigeria, China, India, I would gravitate to the only Spanish or Finnish person in the room. Of course everyone loves the ease of travel, payment and using their mobile internet in other countries, but at the end of the day everyone subconsciously loves the shared goal of the EU: peace, wealth and stability.
Ability to travel easy within the EU. I can jump into my car and drive to 5-6 countries within a day, no border stops, very convenient.
I’ve never felt patriotic in relation to my country, but I’ve grown up feeling proud about being EU citizen and that’s because of the common goal of cooperation. I hope that people are still able to remember it’s not beneficial to fight each other on this continent.
How easy it is to travel (from a border/documentation perspective) despite all the countries being so different from one another.
Moving to another country and living there without the fear of visas
Ask any non-european in the EU, that’s what’s most important, that’s the main thing we’d lose without the EU, that’s what European workers in the UK lost with Brexit, that’s what UK workers in the EU lost too.
Having a visa is not impossible, but it reduces your powers as a worker
Erasmus, Schengen, the Euro and the fact that this is not the USA. We need to be a better union and a better continent than the alternatives that exist today. I don’t want the EU to become a military power that harasses everyone, nor a surveillance power that tries to access every bit of data about its citizens. I also don’t want to abandon the poorest; we need solidarity between people and between countries. That is how we do it in Europe.
I like it that my country is part of something bigger. It brings stability economically and other ways, too. It is like having an extended family with lots of common history. EU may have become a bureucratic monster to some extent but still I like the co-operation, common goals and values.
The freedom to travel, move or work anywhere in EU. Don’t like your government? Just move to a different one and try if the grass is greener.
It’s easier to answer with a “negative” example – what I don’t miss about pre-EU times. Before EU, when you went abroad, you went *proper* abroad. No common currency, no common systems, and so on. People didn’t necessarily know that Finland exists, or what it was. There was a lot of bureaucracy when dealing with foreign countries. It was sometimes rather petty and almost always pointless. An illustrative example: Roman Schatz, who is German, told of his experience in immigrating into Finland. He married a Finnish woman, and wanted to immigrate to Finland. He had to get a work permit. But, back then, the policy was that he had to demonstrate that no Finnish national could be hired for that task. So, the only job available to him was at a German-speaking nursing home. Mind you, he had zero experience with gerontology; he was a journalist. This is the sort of bureaucracy that I don’t miss. Besides, Finland was a small country, so large organizations had relatively little interest in doing business with us. This meant that any new technology would come here 1.5 years later than elsewhere, if ever, and was usually really expensive because of poor competition, costs of importing and small market.
It’s these small things that ultimately contribute to the biggest achievement the EU has, which is to instill the idea that we’re Europeans, not Ruritanians, and shouldn’t go to war with each other constantly. And not just war, often it was absolutely petty disagreements about things like import and export of butter, and such things, which provide no profit to anyone.
I love how the EU protects its citizens with its laws, unlike for example in the US where big profits are prioritised over individual rights and health.
The feeling of togetherness… Although I am a bit naive, and I know that the Westerners would see me as a filthy Easterner… Let me dream!
Edit: Also, Erasmus was grand. The best year of my life.
Ability to buy something from any EU country and have it delivered without any customs, import fees or extra taxes.
That the vast majority is aiming for, and OK with, putting their personal growth behind the common good. No one loves taxes but it’s generally OK because I’d rather pay them without ever needing the social securities we get than needing it once and not having it at all.
I just flew home after a few weeks on another continent. Before my flight back I said to my husband does it make sense I’ll feel more at ease and “at home” once I land in Dennmark where I had my connection flight, because its the part of the EU, just like my home country Croatia.
He said its exactly how he feels, too. We are at home in the EU.
I love how we overcame the hatred between European countries that had festered for a long time and instead now we have friendship and cultural exchanges between our countries!
I hope that we all feel more and more European instead of just part of one country within the EU.
Not EU, but it’s becoming a more attractive option than the US green card for migrants or even US citizens and their spouse looking for a new opportunity. In Philippines, nurses are choosing Germany over US
Free movement. Being allowed to go to other countries without being treated like the suspect of a crime is great.
No border checks in the Schengen area. When I’m in the mountains on the Polish/Slovak or Polish/Czech borderland, I can easily hike on cross-border trails without even spotting that there is any border. And air travels within the Schengen area are almost as straightforward as train travels.
This degraded a little bit due to the migration crisis, but as a public transport passenger, I haven’t experienced any border checks within the EU so far, maybe except for totally non-invasive checking of IDs on a train between the border stations.
Our variety, so many cultures, languages, so much history, stunning nature, beautiful cities and towns.
By traveling easy it allowed us to see we are not that different after all. We are all human beings wishing the same thing: peace, prosperity and common sense. The differences between countries made us wish to learn more, instead of hating each other because we are different. Overall I suppose EU helped us (or at least me) realize we have more things in common rather than things that divide us.
In a classroom not all children are the same nor are they good at everything. But they have the same goal of learning and growing 🇪🇺 good luck this weekend to our brothers in Moldova 💙💛❤
The fact that we are one species and uniting ourselves instead of dividing each other makes us stronger. EU is the exact proof of the fact that all countries benefit from both old and new members in many, many ways, from businesses to consumers, from social aspects to political aspects.
Think of your body: each organ has its place, imagine if all organs decided to work independently and not serve you and your needs. You’d be dead. I think of the EU as a body where each country plays its role and the entire ecosystem provides synergy, generating growth and helping all summed parts to thrive.
The cooperation between different countries. It helps us learn to work together as a continent and forge strong political connections with each other that we struggled with before the EU came around.
Imagine if we left the EU. That would be a ridiculous move wouldn’t it? Only an idiot would support something like that.
Schengen is pretty cool and has made the experience of touring in the EU as a musician a lot less stressful.
Unfortunately EU still lacks a spine in most fronts, and I wish the [DiEM25 ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Europe_Movement_2025)movement can obtain larger visibility in the years to come, if we still want to talk about pan-european democracy and culture.
On a general level: That it increases our power in global politics and negotiations.
On a personal level: No border checks (I live very close to Hungary and have crossed probably 100s of times).
On an emotional level: That it helps poorer counties catch up to ‘The West’ more quickly. It sucks they had to deal with dictatorships for so long.
Peace.
The founders assumed that if countries become economically intertwined they would stopping waging war against each other. Has been working fine so far.
EU laws. The fact that things are standardised, that Member States have to comply with requirements, etc. Environmental protection and many other things, for example, would be in a much worse state without the EU.
Europe’s history is a long series of often violent struggles between its various nations. The continent has been torn apart for centuries, culminating in the appalling two world wars in the last one.
To go from that, to a union of countries coming together in friendship and partnership to work collectively for their common good is an astonishing achievement. Within a single generation the political shape of a good chunk of the continent went from hatred and violence to cooperation and mutual prosperity.
It’s something to treasure, to protect from those who stir division, and for those of us unfortunately no longer a part of it, something to aspire to be a part of once again.
Trade and the single market. We are heavily export-dependent so being able to export goods and services more easily is a benefit.
Only one thing it’s almost impossible to name it, I would say it among culture, food, different languages and traditions. Every place has its own identity even though you’re 1/2 hours of flight far from them. As European myself, many things are easier compared to being a foreigner, many documents like ID and car license are acknowledged abroad and travelling is less complicated.
– EU standards that otherwise would be ignored if the country would not be a part of it.
– Schengen. It’s so easy to travel inside of the EU.
– Subsidies for many things. A not small part of my solar panels were covered by the EU.
– A sense of being part the european community.
Travel and foreign goods. I don’t *need* my passport to travel within the EU, which is nice. I can also enjoy a (relatively) cheap German beer if I want.
I like Schengen, consumer protection laws, and human rights laws in general. I also love how there are so many distinct cultures and languages within the EU. If your home culture doesn’t fit, you just move/study somewhere else relatively easily. My boyfriend came here (NL) years ago from Bulgaria, and he stayed and bought a home in the Netherlands because the culture fits him well. He’s got a Dutch soul. He’s even more frugal than the average Dutch person! It would’ve been more difficult to do all that without the EU. Also, the EU brought prosperity to most of us. Huge plus.
Edit: oh, and Erasmus. I went on student exchange to Ireland years ago. It was an amazing adventure, made possible by the EU.
freedom of movement, so many fit young women from Europe in London pre-Brexit having fun, no idea what its like now
Freedom of movement.
I grew up in Belfast and my whole childhood was “Catholics versus protestants.” Everything was you can’t go to this area, can’t be friends with that person, can’t go to that school, listen to that music, it’s from the wrong side.
Then in 2004 the old man next door and two Polish men moved in. People joked about them being Catholics and living in a protestant neighborhood. I couldn’t understand how they could “get away with it” until my mother explained “Polish people don’t care about all of that so it doesn’t really matter to them.” My mind was blown and I discovered there was a whole other world out there where people had different concerns than us, but in the future we could all mix and stop caring about our petty differences.
Aside of what people already said, I like that we have so many things in common, even if in the past 50 years the openess was far from what we see now. So if as a Romanian I travel in whole central Europe I see a lot of common things having as root the Habsburg heritage, if I go to France I see a lot in common with the cultural scene, given the tight ties that the young Romania society had in the mid 1800s till mid 1900s, if I go to Balkans I see a lot of the Byzantin heritage.
Is not quite “EU” specific, rather Europe
A lot of stuff. The peace and prosperity that’s been achieved plus the easy trade and travel. From my other perspective, I feel as if we have established something awesome and we need to defend what we’ve created from external threats.
I live in the UK and since leaving, I haven’t seen any improvement whatsoever. My passport is weaker, I can’t freely trade and travel with our nearest neighbours and overall it’s made everything cost more with more bureaucracy. Thankfully I had Irish ancestors so I managed to keep my EU rights.
The sense of equality. Massive and relatively efficient transport systems, health systems, sports and leisure facilities all built for the benefit of everyone not just wealthy people.
Educated people (for the most part) who understand political systems.
Quality of the food.
Way less toxic – them vs us political divides.
A prevailing sense that life is for living and not just for work.
The atmosphere. You can grab a beer in a bar or a bite to eat in a cafe without someone breathing down your neck looking for tips.
I cheat and name two things:
Personally I enjoy the freedom to travel just with my ID card.
But in general: PEACE. I really enjoy being friends with our neighbors.
Flying to another Schengen country with just my hand luggage is awesome. Get off the plane and just walk outside.
International shipping is great, no extra fees or anything, it’s just like buying local.
I also really like consumer protection. There’s no way my small country could implement stuff like mandatory 2 year warranty, or a single charger for all electronic devices. I’ve had two phones die after 1.5 years, I would’ve been out of luck elsewhere, but here I just brought them back to the store and they gave my money back. Full amount, no restocking fee or any other nonsense.
That it works for it’s initial intended purpose; to keep us from destroying our continent every few years. That was the intent of the EU when it was introduced, to bind our economies together so we wouldn’t want to wage war against each other. In that regard it’s been extremely successful.
passport power
the freedom to move, live, work, or study across 27 countries without begging for a visa is an underrated superpower
everything else—funds, policies, bureaucracy—comes second to that level of mobility
I really love the ease and freedom of movement, especially when you factor in the Euro and how familiar and easy it is to adapt to other nations. I like that there’s a bigger picture we’re all part of.
I like feeling that besides my little nation, there are sibling nations alongside us, sharing goals and values and a sense of togetherness, like a family of nations who have each other’s backs.