Wages in general are much better in the US. But then expenses also tend to be higher, not only health, even the tipping gets crazy expensive. But in the end it's very personal, what makes you happy? Is it money? Being close to family? Being in your own country? For most people the move would be too troublesome to be worth it, I guess.

Citizenship is easy to get once you already live in the country, not just Portugal, Luxembourg is probably easier even, the language requirement is a low level of Luxembourgish. Of course for that you first need residency. In Portugal is again easy, as long as you have a job contract, Portugal has probably the most liberal migration laws in the EU right now (yeah, wages are low).

Portugal nationality for non-residents is easy as long as you can prove a family connection, that can be a Portuguese granparent or Portuguese Jewish roots (they can be 5 centuries old, is a compensation for inquisition, but you must be able to prove it, a Portuguese Jewish surname helps).

Moving abroad is always challenging and not for everyone, some people can't adapt to a different way of life.

The EU has obviously an interest in getting the UK back in some shape. But I would say that nobody is in a hurry right now. The UK needs to sort itself out, decide what it wants and be consequent and solid about it. There are currently many discussions on the shape and reform of the EU and more people defend the idea of different levels of integration available. From a true federation with single currency in its core, to contries with free border, free movement, common market, but own currency and non-federated. That second tier could be ideal for countries like the UK and Ukraine, at least in the foreseable future.

Personally I'm glad that at least in some European countries it is NOT a crime to desecrate "holy" things.

The original article by Economist has a paywall, that's why I posted that one instead, but here's the link: https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/07/03/-vladimir-putins-useful-idiots

Considering that the EPP might get a full majority with the far right in the next European election I don't think this is good news. For the ones complaining about von der Leyen just look to the rest of EPP, Manfred Webber for starts, everyone looks so much worse... better to keep Ursula.

there was a reduction on the total number after brexit, so this is an easy way to reflect demographic changes without reducing representativity to any country

feels like a resistance act these days..

I don't think they need to do it, the ECB or the Commission or EUCO never showed any sign of trying to force their legal obligation to join, so doing nothing is enough not to join. But in any case the weakness is becoming perennial and that's problematic for Sweden.

But what else is there? The riots are violent by nature, these are not peaceful demonstrations. And incidents like this show how violence goes in the worst directions. That these riots spread to Brussels is even more absurd.

I'm all for people protesting and defending an political position, violence might even be excused or justified. But this "spontaneous" riots, this n'importe quoi violence is a disaster, there's no agenda, no strategy, no nothing and in the end Le Pen will be the one pocketing gains from this. This is really a disaster and police violence will only more likely increase.

PS: In Metz a library was burnt down to the ground, these are very stupid levels of violence.

It's more about Ukraine and the Balkans. Not an easy task, the EU needs urgent reforms before further enlargements, any new enlargement will only make any reform more difficult to reach.