Guy Verhofstadt is a monument
in Belgian politics.

"A more effective, simple, transparent and consolidated Union" can only exist when E.U. will be The United States of Europe, a federal state.

This is an updated version of the Venn diagram presented to the UK Brexit negotiation team. The UK could have chosen to implement the referendum by remaining in the EEA thus retaining the benefits of the single market and customs union. But unfortunately, this was not sufficiently damaging for some.

Just wondering Where did Northen Ireland for in this... both outside the EU (sadly) and in it for certain aspects of trade.

What about all other countries in the world? You can as well take a scissor and remove the right side of the graph.

Guy you are 100% correct ours beloved EU lost the driving and the road to a final destination ONE COUNTRY we must ask ourselves way for me is simple we follow lot of the USA policy they are not good for the EU, Russia is fare from perfet but is more important for has to have a good relationship with Russia that the USA. Is time that the EU institutions understand this and act accordeling

The sad little loner at top right should really be GB rather than UK as Northern Ireland is still in the Customs Union.

Isn’t your diagram wrong ? Your uk circle I imagine refers to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of the eu customs union.

We need one common language, one currency, one common law and independent, efficient system of justice, independent of politicians. And a new education and economic pact that will bring jobs from Asia back to EU.

So sad to see the UK looking so lonely. It's already becoming clear that 'sovereignty' basically means lots of red tape, lost trade and inflated prices.

I always liked Europe but now that I have children, I love it. The idea that they can go live / study abroad is fantastic.

You are right, it's complex, and democracy is messy. At the same time, I always felt that basing the capital of Europe in Belgium was also a sure recipe for administrative nightmare: in academia (transport governance field) my colleagues often use Belgium to test decision support tools in complex settings, precisely because .. it's a mess (many overlapping levels of governance, geographical boundaries etc). What would the EU look like if it's capital was in Helsinki or Copenhagen I wonder. Anyway it's probably better than if it was in Athens ;)

Thank you, that is a most useful, and clear, schematic of European relations.

One day, sooner than I expected, I hope to be part of, living within the European community... God, how happy I shall be 😁

Noting that the referendum asked about leaving the EU, not all the other bits. Absolute insanity, on a criminal level was required to end up this way.

There’s more: - Northern Ireland is still in the customs Union - Akrotiri and Dhekelia is part of the Eurozone - Åland 🇦🇽 part of Finland but not part of the EU, but then again in the Eurozone - Switzerland and Liechtenstein are a customs Union - etc... But hey that’s OK ... the world is not black or white, Antarctica 🇦🇶 is not a nation, the Holy See 🇻🇦 and the Maltese order are not territorial ... etc .. If you cannot face it, embrace it.

Sadly, there's an influential minority in the UK who see this as a badge of honour.

In my opinion one of the biggest mistakes is that the EU is not making enough propaganda for itself in all the countries Own Tv Channel News about EU every day Explanations about the instituíos etc

You can't have speed and clout and clarity and transparency all together, and we won't have real democracy with debate and empathy when almost nobody in the EU speaks our common language (English) as a first language.

Guy Verhofstadt Hello! Thank you very much for being such a supporter of European unity and for fighting the hardest battles. What are your thoughts on this issue though: unequal treatment of EU members. Should not all EU members be part of Schengen? Do you think that some EU countries receive unfair treatment from other EU countries based on national political interests and interests, not compatible EU values? When will the EU support small member countries in removing visas for the USA? The USA is breaching its agreements with the EU by disallowing certain countries to travel visa-free. The EU is built on common values which have to be maintained if we want this union to thrive. Thank you very much in advance and keep up!

And that Guy Verhofstadt is why it should have stayed as a trading block and not morph into a superstate where one size fits all 😔

Northern Ireland, part of the UK is still in the customs unions. There is a more accurate map put there

Let's be fair and mark Northern Ireland and Scotland separately. They should soon be back with our European family. 🇪🇺 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇯🇪

It makes me want to cry and scream in equal measure that the UK is now outside the EU.

Look at the Little UK* ... all out there on its own! Totally ridiculous. *Accepting of course that NI is still in the EU customs union.

The only way forward is to become the United States of Europe.