When EU was implemented in my country, our goods where set like this : 1€ = 200,482 PTE.
So, on the 31 december 2001 a coffee costrd 0,50cents (PTE).
The next day was costing between 150 PTE and 200,482PTE.
There was no raise in the salaries.... Tell me about inflation.
At that time our bill groceries and life quality changed drastically.
Euro has lost 40% of it's value since it was introduced circ 2002, it is a failure.
Of course it is. Starting by the conversion of currency that was obnoxious, that led the peripheral countries to a massive debt, not many years later...that we had to pay at high interest rates. Not to mention, the traditional products, that were for years the income of many, many families, that are forbidden by rules and penalty with fines, if caught doing it. The greed of ones at the expense of the powerless.
For us in Ireland it meant abandoning our fishing communities, they are but few now. We can barely fish our own waters.
It's a cruel humiliation.
For us also...we have an immense sea area, from the Descobertas" time, where we are not allowed to fish....it belongs to the country but we are not allowed to fish there....go figure.... The milk from Azores, we are only allowed to produce an amount, the rest go to waste. It's actually insane...
That is very sad and I feel you. 🫂🫂🫂 We share the same issues. In Portugal not only with fish but other products like traducional ham, cheese, medronho, licors, milk.... We are becoming a turism country with houses very expensive to our pockets.
