Euro Area

[Husar]

Do you have anything substantial to back up that statement or did you just pull that out of your behind?

They invested in european football clubs and real estate, they provide the gas half of Europe needs to keep warm and they shelter our poor millionaires and ex-politicians who give them huge popularity by saying Putin is a perfect democrat. Additionally the are starting to do business with us in many other ways. The gas alone gives them quite a bit of leverage of course, they already turned it off for Ukraine and Poland not too long ago because these two didn't behave.

Why didn't we offer money in return for a substantial share of the profits of the exploitation of Cyprus' natural resources?

Maybe because "we" don't have the tech and know-how to exploit such resources and make a profit, or maybe "we" are too concerned about the conflict with Turkey, our next member-to-be and current NATO ally. Besides, the Cypriots would probably blame us later for taking away their resources when they were down -> exploitation.

FFS can we have at least one thread that mentions Germany without Hitler being chucked in the mix again. Even for a Monty Python fan it's getting very thin.

No, we can't.

They didn't cause it. Joining the Euro did.

And since they never joined the Euro, noone can blame them.