The EU is about the internal market, but having an internal market means it's about standards. There should be no technical difference between products from Denmark or Spain.

These rules are developed by the commision, but approved by national governments, which are then 'translated' into national laws.

In some areas the rules are very specific and detailed (eg chemicals) but in others the national governments are still in control (like protected titles such as baristers).

In the end is the motivation money. If you think your usb-c chargers are better than other countries, you would like to force apple to move to USB-C chargers. So it's a big economical incentive, and having countries on board like Germany, Scandinavia or the netherlands, makes the EU more suspicious of large companies, it's in their culture ;).

US has a more liberal policy where they make mistakes very costly, if you can succesfully bring a claim to the responsible party. The european mindset just tries to forbid things (Things aren't allowed if they aren't proven safe, instead of only things proven unsafe being forbidden)

The products in Denmark and Spain are already 'the same' with respect to chargers.

The standards don't vary across the region on this issue.

"If you think your usb-c chargers are better than other countries, you would like to force apple to move to USB-C chargers."

This is definitely not it. There is no secret cabal of 'cable margin corporations' pushing for this legislation to tilt the power in the EU.

This is just the EU legislators thinking about what is right in front of their faces and thinking of legislating about it.

There might be some opportunity there, but probably not.

If someone wanted to help, they could figure out how to recycle them properly,

I'm not an expert by any means, but my impression is that, while they certainly still have some influence, lobbyists and big companies hold a lot less sway in European politics than in the US. Part of that may be tighter rules around campaign finance, part of it may be cultural.

There is not really a 'european' government. There is a political body, which is setting some wider rules in the union, but only in areas which have been transferred by national governments.

However, there is a tendency of these national governments to introduce laws on that level, and then turn around to their citizens and tell them 'Bruxelles told us to do this'.

There are certainly some stupid laws on that level, especially in the area of tech. But most of the complaints (these laws are conflicting!) are just a meme.

In general is the support for the EU a majority [1] and the UK only succesfully 'won' the referendum to leave, and are now seeing the difference the EU has made in daily life.

The quotes research is a bit older, I am certain the Covid response and the fallout from Brexit has improved the support for the European union.

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/10/14/the-european-u...

Also, the EU government is not hugely popular in the public opinion. Years ago the EU government was popularly known for creating nonsensical rules (and there are indeed examples of nonsensical rules).

To claim their future existence, the EU government really has to prove their usefulness for the EU citizens.

> To claim their future existence, the EU government really has to prove their usefulness for the EU citizens.

A lot of it has to do with the EU government being the punching bag of local politics. Like the German conservatives would throw up their hands "we can't do anything against this nonsensical EU legislation", completely omitting that they are represented in the EU parliament and could've done something against it there.

And the population buys it because the in general the EU population knows less about EU governance than US governance. A shame.

Lots of right wing parties in the EU advocate for a "countryname-exit" and thus lobbyism in the EU has to fight the fear of no-existing very soon. Thus, the government has to fight for the approval of the people every day at gunpoint and thus, good legislation may appear for fear of loosing ones power, job and by that even the lobbyism bribery income.

> Lots of right wing parties in the EU advocate for a "countryname-exit"

Not anymore, that was the past!

Bellies are still aching from laughter after Brexit, and EU has got the final approval stamp after 2016.

Most of the Eastern European countries have significant exit moves.

Afd in germany is going into the same direction

Also remember, until the day the brexit vote happened, the Brexxit was not possible,not real and not even worth discussing on HN.

Such things might not make waves in the high-tech bubble, but in the real world, such movements might be considerable. Lots of people see globalism as a attack on their life and community by now.

> Lots of people see globalism as a attack...

I agree with you on this point. It's worth noting that they are usually the same people who actually push for globalism, every time they choose "cheaper" over "local".

Do they really choose? Wage stagnation is very real- so going for the cheapest, is not really a choice, just a attempt to keep your economic downfall from materializing.