[reacharavindh]

This is the baffling side of the EU to all outsiders/newcomers. When I first moved here, that was my first thought as well. There is just so much in common, why repeat everything everywhere instead of single effort with branches everywhere?! (police force, consular services, Identity services, and pretty much any Government paperwork one can think of, transportation services etc). However, the population is very localised and divided. The French do it their way, Italians another way, the Germans on their own way etc. It is hard to find gain common ground beyond what EU already represents(which is very good IMO). I do wish doing things at EU level becomes the norm, and individualities slowly disappear.

Imagine a single European rail service (not Euro rail where you can buy a single ticket that will make you take Dutch train, and then connect on a German train, and then on an Austrian train, and if you miss a connection, good luck figuring out your replacement..)

[camgunz]

My partner and I just moved to the Netherlands and I mildly disagree. For one, we really like the diversity and appreciate the different cultures and histories. But I also think there's something to different member states getting to experiment on their own. Like, the Finns are onto something with their school system for sure, but the Dutch have a lot of Montessori schools--what are the pros and cons of each approach?

But, yeah not that we're wild about international train travel--that's a sore spot for sure. But generally we view the differences as a kind of richness and less of an inconvenience.

[lazyeye]

Agreed. Inconvenience is a small price to pay to avoid blandness.

[DoingIsLearning]

> I do wish doing things at EU level becomes the norm, and individualities slowly disappear.

Unless you reach an economic moment where you can pay the same to a policeman in Sweden and a policeman in Greece there is never going to be a socioeconomic identity that would allow you to aggregate all these people in some sort of federation police force. Same for rail, same for most anything where there is a cost or expense or transaction.

The diversity of systems reflects a diversity of arbitrage. Brute forcing that into a single entity or federal body is ivory tower thinking.

[b112]

Unless you reach an economic moment where you can pay the same to a policeman in Sweden and a policeman in Greece there is never going to be a socioeconomic identity that would allow you to aggregate all these people in some sort of federation police force.

Why?

Localized pay has been a thing for literally centuries, across a wide swath of fields.

This is not about standardized pay, but about resource sharing.

Imagine a study about an uptick in a certain type of crime. Easier on one big force, than 20 little ones.

[vanderZwan]

> There is just so much in common, why repeat everything everywhere instead of single effort with branches everywhere?!

I think you misunderstand the history of the EU project: its goal is what you describe, but it must be balanced with respecting the autonomy of each individual nation inside the union. It can only work if all involved governments agree to do it. Which is an incredibly difficult thing to achieve.

What we have now is the progress we have managed to make so far. If it does not appear like much, well, you should have seen what things were like before the EU, especially regarding red tape.

[hestefisk]

That’s the downside - and beauty - of federalism. EU is very diverse with different cultures, language, and behaviours.

[college_physics]

there are many obstacles (pre-existing conditions, different legal context, national sensitivities etc)

in general the EU strategy has been to agree common rules and standards. But there are also examples of common infrastructure, e.g. the Euro bills

it will be interesting to see how this might develop for software related to public institutions

[ryokeken]

sounds like USA and it's relation to its members states