GDPR is too little too late, and may even be counterproductive[1]. It would have been vastly preferable to have healthy European competitors to Microsoft / Apple / Google / Facebook. But we don't, and probably will never have.
The situation with Microsoft in the 90's should have made it obvious of what was to come. Our politicians ignored it entirely. They are now making grand statements about democracy that leave me less than impressed.
[1] Some say that GDPR will cement Google / Facebook's advertising monopoly as they are in a much better position to gather data sharing consent from their users than their smaller competitors.
It's easy in the US because they have a large, wealthy and boundary free market with almost no access cost beyond marketing.
English, their mother tongue and the language of the country where they are actually living on.
A few speak even more.
Only when the giants started translating their offerings to reach an even wider audience in non-anglophone countries did end users start to expect a web in their home language and the potential audience of non-anglophone-based companies dropped (because they usually address their home language first).
Now the most inhibiting cost of multi-language offerings is usually not the act of translation itself, but the resulting quality which is rarely high.
EDIT: I think actually it speaks very much to how european unity is about so much more than just the EU. By extension how culture and national identity is about so much more than what the Westphalian paradigm provides.
The Brits.
It's never too late to start investing in the tech sector.
As for the elections: Orban used lots of tools (cheating) to make sure that they win again. Migrants/illegal border crossers are not a problem here at this time here actually (they prefer Germany with a better economy).
Most of us Hungarians want to stay in the EU, but we have a dictator who would prefer to be outside if the money stops flowing from EU to them.
The EU has massive structural problems - sure most of them are not a direct fault of the EU but it certainly weakens the union.
Just look at youth unemployment in Spain for example. There is an entire generation growing up out of work and not building any skills. They can't compete in a global market.
What happens when Spain falls on actual hard times?
Or for example a small number of refugees have caused a huge shift right in politics and a lot of friction between member states. What will happen when there is a serious refugee crisis?
If only most people out of Europe, and most certainly Spain, would take a glimpse of the standards of living people take for granted in Western Europe, in particular Americans, they’d be demanding their governments at least the same.
Please get a passport, visit Europe, and then have an informed opinion.
I can't speak personally for the eastern or southern states but here in central europe things are quite peachy.
The central/west/northern parts of Europe are the most stable in the world, I doubt that will change soon, regardless of what happens elsewhere.
Come on over and have a look! I invite you to coffee and cake, and a stroll in my garden
Greetings from Frankfurt
Go figure.
The fact that there have no longer been wars between the participants?
After thousands of years of endless strife, wars & massacres.
Ask people from my great-parents generation (who lived throught WW2) if this is not a HUGE benefit...
The only 'win' I can think of of the top of my head was the UK referendum, which was 52/48 in favour of leaving. Polls taken now suggest that people are now mostly against leaving but the referendum result still stands.
Poland was one of the most pro-EU countries in the union, and it will be again. It has seen the benefits firsthand, regardless of a vocal minority of xenophobes.
Le Pen had big gains yes, and still lost because the country decided to vote tactically, together to stop a fascist getting any power. She lost.
Hungary I'll give you, because it has been hardcore right-wing for a long while and massively corrupt.
His policies and speeches bring definite reminders of nationalistic policies past, of using immigrants as refugees and scapegoats for everything wrong in a society, as well as appealing to traditionalist values, the "things were much better in the old days" rose-tinted glasses mentality.
It is a symptom of being stuck in the past, a wish to bring society back to the imagined "good old days", which never actually existed in the first place. There are also the obvious calls to maintaining traditions and cultural identity that is "under attack" and in many cases were actually imported from other cultures and assimilated over decades. It's the exact same story with every other nationalistic politic party, in every European country.
Wait, what? EU is doing better than ever and it looks like after Brexit we will enjoy greater integration, and hopefully a full financial and political union in the future. If this is what a "fall" looks like to you, then I don't really know what to say to you - but from the rest of your sentence it seems like you don't like EU as an institution, so I guess it's unlikely you share my enthusiasm for it.