00:00No, the EU is not eroding European democracy.
00:06Tesla CEO Elon Musk has once again made dubious claims about the EU, its popularity and the quality of its democracy.
00:15In a post on X, the multi-billionaire said that Ireland and all other EU members should leave the bloc,
00:21claiming that it's destroying democracy in Europe.
00:23He made the comments in response to another post criticising a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice,
00:30which rejected a claim by the Irish government that it was unable to properly cover asylum seekers' basic needs due to an inundation of applicants.
00:38Claims about the EU's supposed lack of democracy are often levied when the ECJ hands down a ruling that a particular political faction or figure doesn't like,
00:47but research shows that EU countries and European nations in general are some of the most democratic in the world.
00:53The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, published this year, says that there are 25 countries in the world that are full democracies,
01:0213 of which are in the EU.
01:04Some of the highest ranking include Sweden, Finland, Denmark and, yes, Ireland.
01:08The number is even higher when you take into account non-EU European countries,
01:13such as Norway, which is right at the top, Iceland, Switzerland and the UK.
01:18Many other EU countries are labelled floor democracies by the EU,
01:22but this is still the second highest rank in the index.
01:25France, Malta, Slovenia and Latvia are some of the member states making up the numbers here.
01:30The EU notes, however, that democracy in some EU nations has deteriorated,
01:35such as Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, the last of which is ranked as a hybrid regime.
01:40While there's still a clear democratic divide between eastern and western EU countries,
01:45the gap is closing slowly.
01:47The Czech Republic and Estonia made it into the full democracies list this year,
01:52after a decade of no eastern European country making the cut.
01:56the country made it into account The European Union is clairvoyant for six years.
02:00The European Union is rich in China.
02:02The European Union Sheikh arrowhead.
02:03The European Union of Chuck Maharshi,
02:05with reconstruction in Europe,
02:08was selected by 14 third of the European Union of South Wales.
02:09Now, for a decade now in the European Union of South Wales,
02:12we have left in attenborough grises.
02:14slowly somewhere between our forums bois,
02:17where 1sternberg-險fthenon's syndrome.
02:19Of course, we have to celebrate Oscars and elsewhere,
02:20in our region of Macan and Australia.
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