Who Has The Most Power in Europe?

[starshine]

Looking at the news, it feels like Germany is the economic powerhouse; when I lived in Italy, everyone talked of going there to get a job. But as I live here, the people don't seem to have this much confidence about this -- sure, they realize they have a lot of money, but they get pissed that it goes to bail out other countries, in a way. And it seems that many of them attribute the power not to Germany or its people, but to the US who "gets the last say" when it comes to the country. Something about how the country in a way is still occupied.

Since I lived in Canada and concerned myself mostly with local politics, I don't have too much knowledge or understanding of the powers at play in the European Union. Is Germany really the most powerful country in it?

 

[Gabriel]

I would say Germany as they seem to hold the cards, followed by the UK and France. Germany and France have the Euro so they have more vested interests, economically and politically. As it is one of the few countries where unemployment is low, the economy is stronger than most, so with that they seem to be able to have a greater say in matters.

 

[xTinx]

Germany has a strong economy (when you compare it to the rest of Europe) and it's one of the leading exporters of topnotch military weapons. I don't have concrete evidence that its military might is the best there is across the continent, but I do know UK, Italy and France can rival its army's power.

 

[003]

The great thing about the European Union is that each country has a speciality on its own. Germany in terms of economy, France and UK in terms of military, and UK in terms of its alliance with other powerful countries like USA, those of the middle east and those that are rising to power in Asia. So you really can't tell who's got the most power. That wouldn't be fair especially that they have what they call European Union. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

 

[Onionman]

Germany still dictates the terms of the eurozone, though from an EU perspective the UK would challenge whether they have much influence over them. But this has been the way of the European community for decades and there's no reason to think that that's going to change any time soon.

 

[missbishi]

I would agree that Germany appear to be the strongest country, economically, whilst the UK seems to have the strongest links with other continents. However, as 003 says, each member of the EU brings something different to the table and the union fortifies us all.

 

[UAE]

Germany, france and UK.

 

[Dez97]

Germany, and the UK.

 

[kestas57]

Germany if one looks purely from an economic standpoint.
Militarily it is close between the UK and Russia. Russia has a huge army but it is nowhere near as modern as the British army.
France is also powerful as it is on the Security Council in the UN.

 

[CanisLupas]

Economically it is Germany and has remained that way for a long time now. However, Eurozone has just started QE, when most of the rest of the 1st world have recovered from the banking crisis. The Euro took a mighty tumble. There is still a lot of problems in the Eurozone with misbehaving and under performing Euro countries (mostly in the south). The UK opted out of the Euro,as only the founding members could do - it was a good move! Germany never wanted the Euro it was forced on them by France as part of the agreement of the EU (it made sense as German has always been the real danger to France historically, but having a single currency that threat is mitigated by the mutual devastation war between them cause their economies).

Britain and France are the most power militarily in the EU; UK probably ahead on technology, intelligence and alliances (the Commonwealth and ties to USA/Australia/Canada/Japan through the joint intelligence agreement - and history). France probably has bigger troop numbers.

Russia is not EU, and is mostly in Asia, its is also not so easy to position - their economy is in tatters over Ukraine, and they lost a lot of the military muscle with the break up of the USSR and raising funds in the aftermath (selling off the fleets etc).

 

[kittyworker]

It depends on what you mean by power. I think the UK has the stronger connections to other nations, many of which would lend their own power to the UK in a time of crisis. Economically Germany is probably in a better position than anyone else. UK and France have similar military power, but again because of foreign ties with other commonwealth nations, the UK can draw a lot of outside help.

 

[tasha]

I would say that US has the most power as they are the most financially stable as well as Germany who quietly continues on to grow. In warfare I would say that Russia is still one of the most dangerous countries as well as Japan as they are secretly preparing for war while the world is concentrating on something else.

 

[tournique]

Tasha, we're talking about EU. But yea, I'd have to go with Germany, UK and probably France. In both terms of army power and economy.

 

[JulianWilliams]

Looking at the news, it feels like Germany is the economic powerhouse; when I lived in Italy, everyone talked of going there to get a job. But as I live here, the people don't seem to have this much confidence about this -- sure, they realize they have a lot of money, but they get pissed that it goes to bail out other countries, in a way. And it seems that many of them attribute the power not to Germany or its people, but to the US who "gets the last say" when it comes to the country. Something about how the country in a way is still occupied.

Since I lived in Canada and concerned myself mostly with local politics, I don't have too much knowledge or understanding of the powers at play in the European Union. Is Germany really the most powerful country in it?

I'd say it's Germany as well. They have the biggest and most technologically advanced economy. They will dominate Europe for a long time to come. Some might be tempted to say Russia, but their economy is in tatters and the fact that they have nukes doesn't really matter that much.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Germany doesn't have WMD nor it has a complete air-fighter program like France.