AM
I agree UK governments have added to inequalities but some EU policies have too. Surely it can't be said 100% UK Governments and 0% EEC/EU have got us where we are today.
One example - multinational businesses have been able to play EU countries off against each other to obtain particularly low taxation on their profits. Using free movement of capital and goods within the internal EU market. High profile examples include Apple and Amazon. The end result is lower taxation for EU Member Governments and less revenue for public expenditure for say state schools and health services. Free movement of capital and goods was not designed to be manipulated in this way, but when member governements do not work closely together quickly, mutinational can use transfer pricing and transfer payments to artificially enlarge or depress their profits across National boundaries within the internal market. I believe Member States are trying to address this, but it takes so long.
Chicken runner
Ref: food prices and the EU/EEC - since the early days there have been policies to protect the farming sector, firstly to ensure food security and secondly to preserve a perceived under threat rural way of life, within the EEC/EU boundaries. Hence this has always been the biggest area of EEC/EU expenditure. Food quality has become more important in recent years, but for most of its history EU/EEC food security was seen as more important. Other areas of the World can produce cereals for example more efficiently and to the same standards if not higher than in Europe, because of more suitable climate, larger scale of production, better soils, historical development of their farms, but to stop cereal prodiction grinding to a gradual halt subsidies have been provided to European cereal farmers, firstly based on food produced but now sometimes to stop them producing food after problems with over production (grain mountains). This is seen as important as said to preserve food production and rural life also the farming sector lobby is very strong in many EU countries such as France. A side effect of this is that rural countries within the EU tend to receive more payments/subsidies than non rural countries. Food prices until very recently have dropped in the EU but they are still in general higher than areas outside the EU. EU Food quotas and tariffs on food imports will increase food prices, but if the strategy is to support the farming sector this is seen as a positive. Improvements in farming techniques globally will increase yields and reduce costs leading to lower food prices, if they exceed any increases in demand for food. To be fair the farming subsidies have reduced from over 50% of the EU/EEC total expediture to now around 38% but its still a central plank of the EU budget. In the UK the farming sector is the smallest in Europe as a % of the National economy I believe its just under 1%.
