r/YUROP • u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia • Jan 22 '23
If the whole continental Europe would unite to one country, what city would be its capital?
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u/Recent_Ad_7214 Italia Jan 22 '23
Capital is on the Moon, no one gets upset
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u/TheLoneWolfMe Calabria Jan 23 '23
Capital is on the moon Europa, if we're not the first to get there I'll be upset.
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u/rokkantrozi fuck if i know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 🇩🇪🇭🇺 Jan 22 '23
Berlin just for the trolling 
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Jan 23 '23
There are already too many Poles who say that EU is a new German approach to conquer Europe. If EU moved the capital to Berlin all the people would go crazy.
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u/petitprince7 Bayern Jan 22 '23
Istanbul only if it is constantinople ;)
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u/fill-blintion Jan 22 '23
Istanbul, Constantinople or Konstantiniye, call it whatever you want but please know that it is literally the center of the world
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u/g_Blyn Niedersachsen Jan 23 '23
No, you can't go back to Constantinople \ Been a long time gone, Constantinople \ Why did Constantinople get the works? \ That's nobody's business but the Turks.
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Jan 22 '23
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u/stergro Jan 23 '23
Bratislava is only 30 minutes from Vienna and would be a nice and more neutral choice.
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u/DontJudgeMeImNaked Jan 23 '23
Not Vienna because Austrians are spineless. War in Ukraine has shown this. They are pretending to be Switzerland, who are the biggest douche bags in history.
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u/FifthMonarchist Jan 23 '23
Prague because of the whole "rest of Europe backstabbing them in 1938/39"
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Jan 22 '23
Brussels is the logical choice.
If we had to restart, I would say Vienna or Berlin seen their central location. Vienna seen its historical importance and because the country borders the three main cultures of Europe: Germanic, Latin and Slavic. In case of Berlin, because for half a century, it symbolized a divided Europe (the Berlin wall).
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u/Almun_Elpuliyn Land of fiscal crimes Jan 23 '23
We take Vienna and realize that one incredibly wack plan for assured piece in Europe where we split up the continent like the quadrants of a circle.
This is in no way shape or form a serious proposal from my part but it would be immensely funny
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u/NobleAzorean Jan 22 '23
Take a small central town and transform it in the new capital. Building with buildings of all architectures styles of the EU.
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Jan 22 '23
I vote for Gadheim, Germany. The current geographical center of EU. We would have to build everything on wheels though as it changes whenever a country is added or removed from the EU.
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u/NobleAzorean Jan 24 '23
Makes total sense. As long Germany would be cool with renaming a city and turning it in a Internacional one.
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u/johnny-T1 Jan 22 '23
Obviously Berlin.
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 22 '23
Just for the joke
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u/johnny-T1 Jan 22 '23
How would Istanbul work though? You would only take the Thracian part of Turkey and only half of the city.
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 22 '23
Well I would even include Turkey as part of Europe for this option. I was primarily including the city because it used to be the capital of the Roman Empire.
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u/VOCmentaliteit Gelderland Jan 22 '23
Aken the city of Karel the big one
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u/warbreakr Nederland Jan 22 '23
😂😂😂
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u/VOCmentaliteit Gelderland Jan 23 '23
I don’t use his Latin name, he signed royal decrees with a K so he’s Karel
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u/thatoneasshole-_- Italia Jan 22 '23
IT'S COMING TO ROME
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Jan 22 '23
New capital city like Brasília or DC would be cool. Has to be centralized though.
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u/am_sleepy Jan 22 '23
Rotating capital to prevent too much centralisation
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Jan 22 '23
This sounds like a massive waste of money…
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u/Payakan 𝖄𝖚𝖗𝖔𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖓 Jan 22 '23
Exactly. The whole Brussels/Strasbourg shenanigans are proof enough.
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u/loicvanderwiel IN VARIETATE CONCORDIAIN CONCORDIA VIS Jan 22 '23
Not mentioning the security nightmare.
"So, here's the new office of the Ministry of Defence. But you can't actually work in it because it hasn't been certified for Top Secret level. Your office is number 322 on the waiting list. Also, we lost a bunch of documents in shipping, something about ballistic missile guidance. I hope it wasn't too important."
Also, all embassies would need to move as well because they have to stay in contact with the government they are sent to. All in all, you'd have the equivalent of a middle-sized city moving every year or so.
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u/Wonderful-Hall-7929 Jan 23 '23
We (Germany) basically did that right after the reunification when ministires where both in Bonn and Berlin.
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u/loicvanderwiel IN VARIETATE CONCORDIAIN CONCORDIA VIS Jan 23 '23
And you are still, to an extent, doing it. It's the Berlin-Bonn law. Except, all buildings are fixed in their use (no one really moves around, ministries are just split between the two) so there is no concerns regarding security matters (or not as many since there's still the question of communications security).
That being said, ministers and civil servants apparently fly between the two about 230000 times a year, which has both environmental and economical consequences.
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u/Effective_Dot4653 Wielka Polska Muzułmańska! Jan 22 '23
Tbf, the current Brussels/Strasbourg deal is one of the worst deals imaginable. If we really wanted a rotational capital we could agree to move every two years or something instead - short enough not to give any single place too much power, but long enough not to waste enormous amount of resources by moving all the time.
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u/Victorbendi Cataluña/Catalunya Jan 23 '23
Two years is to little time, it should be more like 2 legislatures of the EP (10 years).
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u/schnupfhundihund Jan 22 '23
You could just locate the government in one city and the parliament in another.
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Jan 22 '23
If you think about something like Bratislava and Vienna… this would be ok.
But there is a reason why not many countries do this…
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u/MobofDucks Westfalen Jan 22 '23
Naah. Have an administrative capital. Doesnt really change anything in regards to centralization. The other important institutions will and should stay somewhere else though.
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 22 '23
Good idea, would the seat of government change as well tho?
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u/felis_magnetus Jan 22 '23
Not a rotating capital, a mobile capital. Whatever the most pressing issue is, the capital moves there until resolved. If it was good enough for Charlemagne, it's good enough for the current crop.
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u/Wonderful-Hall-7929 Jan 23 '23
If it was good enough for Charlemagne
Whzo had the advantage of absolute rule, so no pesky parliament!
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u/tortellomai PanEuropanist Italia Κύπρος Jan 22 '23
Geneva. Considering all continental Europe, Switzerland would be the less biased country. Its official languages are the most spoken around Europe, it’s center-ish located and it’s also a very important city regarding international cooperation
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u/bowsmountainer Jan 23 '23
That’s a good point. But something would seriously have to change about Swiss mentality for them to even consider the possibility of joining with the rest of Europe.
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u/TheRomanRuler Suomi Jan 22 '23
Rome for historical reasons, but really it propably should be Brussels or Vienna.
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 22 '23
I'd also pick Rome, just for nostalgic reasons.
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Jan 22 '23
Modern Rome is a logistical nightmare though. Quite a poorly managed city, there's also an infestation of wild boars going on.
Edit: also poor infrastructure
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u/TheRomanRuler Suomi Jan 23 '23
Yeah Rome never was too good, even in the actual real Roman empire capital was moved away to Constantinople and in the west to Milan and then Ravenna.
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u/FloAlla Jan 22 '23
Germany. Yes, the whole country. It's perfect, we are so bureaucraticed that we basically are nothing but a big office, we are in the middle and we allready proved that we really want it!
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u/Gieter9000 Jan 22 '23
Aken, because of Charlemagne and its situated very close to Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and France
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u/alphapeppapigma Jan 22 '23
Fun idea also because if you use its actual name (Aachen) you’d make sure it’s always at the top of any alphabetically sorted list
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u/Gieter9000 Jan 22 '23
Yes sorry, that is better i used the dutch name because i was too lazy to search it up
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u/TheHoleInFranksHead Toscana Jan 22 '23
Geneva. Central (ish), historically neutral (ish), nice lake.
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Jan 23 '23
And CERN is there.
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Jan 23 '23
That is precisely why I think Geneva would be a bad choice. In the event of a world war, it seems incredibly dangerous to have such an expensive and important building in (what would be) the continent’s most targeted city
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u/Cheddar-kun Jan 22 '23
I say we build a new kind of upwardly spiraling city somewhere nobody cares about like luxembourg or france, make the city a separate state that doesn’t belong to any country in particular. But each member of the EU runs their own section as if it was part of their country. Like a giant cold war berlin.
I think a name like “Babel” would be fitting.
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u/felis_magnetus Jan 22 '23
How about reclaiming Doggerland for that purpose? We could even shape the quarters as miniature versions of the countries running them and use ferries as a form of public transport.
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u/Crouteauxpommes Pays-de-la-Loire Jan 22 '23 edited Jan 22 '23
The Bilateral Integrated Georegion of Alsace-Rhine-Saarland Eurodistrict, or BIG ARSED for short.
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u/bjorten Jan 22 '23
Building a new capital city as Brasilia did with Brasilia is the best option in my opinion, the former capitals can remain as regional capitals but it is better to build a new city that fits a bureaucracy for a large federation instead of trying to fit it into an existing city.
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u/felis_magnetus Jan 22 '23
Brasilia is actually considered a failure more or less from a city-planning POV.
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u/bjorten Jan 22 '23
I did not know that actually, thanks for the information. Also, if I may ask, what is it that has failed with the city planning? Is the traffic horrible or did it not take into account how things would change over time?
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u/felis_magnetus Jan 23 '23
Brasília, among other things, also was build with the goal of preventing favelas and the typical pattern of social exclusion manifesting as pushing the poor to the peripheries of cities. It didn't work out, not at all. The exact same happened, just that the satellite cities surrounding Brasilia, who were meant to house well-paid workers of industries, for which vast areas were pre-assigned, that actually never came, turned into pre-build not-quite-favelas. Brasilia is a bastion of well-paid bureaucrats, technocrats and other elites, surrounded by a ring of an impoverished servant class. Only 10% of the population of the region live in Brasília proper, their average household income is 6 times as high as that of the remaining 90%. To quote Brazilian architecture professor Valter Caldana "a model that's expensive for those who pay and perverse for those who have to live (in) it."
Now, with that being said, it doesn't necessarily mean, that we couldn't learn from Brasília and other failed attempts of artificially creating a metropolis (China has some weird ghost towns, too, for example), but it will require the political will to play hard ball in the extreme with the usual economic interests trying to get involved in what by necessity is a spending bonanza. Given how many lobbyists pollute the seat of every EU institution, given how cronyism is rampant in most member states, I don't see that happening.
Maybe Europe can give itself a new capital, but for that to live up to the pathos, to the symbolism of a fresh start, one actually needs to happen. A fresh start, a popular revolution, an EU carried by popular movements, not by corporate interests and unsteady compromises between nation states in it out of necessity, not conviction. Which I sadly also don't see happening anytime soon. Maybe give it a couple of decades. Who knows. Younger generations don't seem to grow more conservative as they age, as used to be the norm. Maybe then we can have good things and a new city that is the result and symbol of lasting change. Who knows, history is weird, history is when nothing much happens for ages and suddenly everything happens all at once in an instant. That's when it's time to lay the foundations.
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u/NorddeutschIand Fischkopp Jan 22 '23
And where should it be build?
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u/bjorten Jan 22 '23
Not sure to be honest, preferably central but in regards to population and not area if that makes sense. Which (from a quick look) seem to be in southern Poland/Czechia.
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u/Almun_Elpuliyn Land of fiscal crimes Jan 23 '23
Starting from zero always creates terrible unreachable cities where noone lives and only officials and lobbyists reside. You absolutely need at least a small city to start off of.
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u/Frikkin-Owl-yeah Baden-Württemberg Jan 22 '23
Dubrovnik
Never been there, probably never will.
But still, real life Kingslanding would be nice.
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u/Effective_Dot4653 Wielka Polska Muzułmańska! Jan 22 '23
I hear your Kingslanding and I raise you to Koningsberg xD
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u/InBetweenSeen Jan 22 '23
I feel like it should be a smaller, central city that hasn't much going on otherwise except for the needed infrastructure and maybe some historical relevance.
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u/glaviouse France Jan 22 '23
considering the cost to move it, it's probably more efficient to keep it in Brussel
but what about having the ministeries dispatched all across Europe (to prevent too much centralisation) ?
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u/The_Blahblahblah Danmark Jan 22 '23
I think Vienna would be the best, but it would be a waste of money and ressources to move capital now that all the buildings and infrastucture is already in place in Brussels
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u/Jom_Bots Schland Jan 22 '23
Frankfurt
I'm for real
good infrastructure, it is the economic captital of th EU and it is located in the center of Europe
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u/Defence_of_the_Anus Jan 23 '23
It's probably best to keep the economic capital and political capital separate
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u/DifficultWill4 Slovenija Jan 22 '23
Ljubljana, Graz, Brno or Bratislava…..they are small enough to prevent centralisation, are all located near major cities (Venice, Vienna, Prague, Munich) and on major routs (especially Ljubljana). They are all quite centrally located as well. It would also shift the power more east
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u/carloandreaguilar Jan 22 '23 edited Jan 22 '23
It would have to be a city in Switzerland. They are the most organized/developed country
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 22 '23
Thanks ;)
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u/carloandreaguilar Jan 22 '23
Haha, I actually just flew back from Switzerland today. Was visiting. Hope to move there for work this year :)
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 22 '23
If you do feel yourself at home. Welcome in Switzerland
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u/carloandreaguilar Jan 22 '23
Thank you very much. I had read on Reddit that Swiss are xenophobic, but my experiences so far have not reflected that at all. The Swiss people I’ve met seem very kind, simple and transparent.
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 22 '23
Well sadly, if you go to the land and the small villages in the alps you can meet a lot of xenophobia, especially if you don't speak swiss german or aren't an ethnical European. People tend to be more anti-immigration on the countryside (that doesn'g mean everyone who doesn't live in the cities and bigger villages is). But in the less remote places people are generally a lot more open than many people I've met in Rome or Paris. Best of luck.
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u/carloandreaguilar Jan 22 '23
Makes sense. I assumed people in the city would be more closed off to foreigners. Glad that’s not the case. Thanks and best of luck to you too for whatever you got going on :)
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u/CommitBasket Lietuva Jan 22 '23
We should hold elections every 5 years on what cities we can turn into capitals
Yes, i want to create chaos
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u/Urom99 Italia Jan 22 '23
Brussel to remember Germany that Belgium is a thing. They always forgot.
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u/Spicycliche Veneto Jan 22 '23
Historical empire capitols like Rome, Vienna, Berlin or Paris can't be considered as they would simbolozed a cultural and political "victory" of that country's former empire. People would complain and be offended, and the eu would most likely loose even more popularity as people wouldn't be able to relate or respect the institution that resides in a former rival capital. That's also one of the reason why Bruxelles was chosen, as Belgium was never a true empire (actually bullied by it's neighbors cough germany cough).
Bruxelles should remain the legislative Capital and then we should displace the eu ministries all around eu cities, and make the office of the chairman/government be hosted on EU members former capitals, to pay respect to all citizens. We could use the countries former cabinet offices too, so no more expenses. People would see eu closer to their homes, and each round would become a celebration of the former country culture, with festivites and cultural exchanges. A true European event. Do it every year and you'll have a 27 year long cycle. Cool!
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u/jag_gillar_gurkor Sverige Jan 23 '23
Probably a multi capital system similar to that of South Africa’s. Maybe, Brussels, London, Berlin, Rome and Paris?
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u/Almun_Elpuliyn Land of fiscal crimes Jan 23 '23 edited Jan 23 '23
As much as I dislike the city Brussels is the most reasonable pick as it already has the necessary infrastructure. That said the only other criteria that makes any sense is to choose based on geography. Rome, Istanbul and such are terrible places no matter their history. Vienna could work despite it's many mountain around, but random places in Bavaria or Czechia would be just as fine. You'd have to massively build up rail around whatever place you pick there.
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 23 '23
I must confess I've never been to Brussels. Is there a particular reason why you dislike it? I've only considered it as an option since it's the capital of the EU.
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u/Almun_Elpuliyn Land of fiscal crimes Jan 23 '23
The city is really ugly. Tons of run down post war architecture and it's a car infested mess. Like I said it's still the best option though.
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u/Gludens Sverige Jan 23 '23
Go Berlin. The EU will expand and they are traditionally in the middle, so go for it.
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u/stergro Jan 23 '23
Brussels for the European Commission, Strassburg for the european Council and Bratislava for the European Parliament. This would be pretty middle European, though and the north and the south might get pissed.
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u/UnhappyStrain859 Sverige Jan 23 '23
brussels is probs the least controversial out of this very controversial situation
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u/Wasalpha France Jan 23 '23
Even if I would love it, not Rome or Paris as they are already capital cities of big countries. I prefer Vienna than Brussels as it is better looking and more centered, but I can't see why we would make the effort to move from Brussels anyway.
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u/ge_o_rg Jan 23 '23
my suggestion we declare the whole of Switzerland a city and make it the EU capital
If necessary against the will of the Swiss
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u/Crescent-IV Jan 23 '23
I don’t think we really need one. We could use Brussels or something as a quasi-capital, but I don’t think there’s a real need for an official one
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Jan 23 '23
Definitely not the others mentioned. Prob Brussels to offend the least. If it was Berlin or Paris it’d be an issue
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Jan 22 '23
Why only one? In the 21st century there is little reason to concentrate all arms of the government in one place. Why not spread the gouvernement of a fédération even more widely than the institutions of the European Union? Why should only Brussels, Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Frankfurt get to be the capitals? Why not also Bratislava? Or Bucarest? Or someday Sevastopol?
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u/Adept-One-4632 România Jan 22 '23
Strsbourg or Istanbul
I have nothing against Brussels but this is Yuropean Unuon not the Belgian Empire
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 22 '23
My problem with Brussels is that it's at the western coast and not in the center of Europe which I think every capital should (more or less) be.
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u/Adept-One-4632 România Jan 22 '23
Soo by that logic the capital should be in Prague ?
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 22 '23
Well it shouldn't be the most centric city. I have decided to include Vienna instead of Prague since Vienna has played an enormous cultural role in the last centuries and being more or less in the center. But I've included Istanbul as well despite being even less central than Brussels because of the enormous cultural significance for Europe the city has. Brussels doesn't have that and isn't central at all, and that's my problem with it. But it's the capital of the EU and that's why I've included it.
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u/Adept-One-4632 România Jan 22 '23
Well i didnt want Vienna to be the capital, since, well, you know if you checked my flair.
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u/Wonderful-Hall-7929 Jan 23 '23
As a German i can understand that Berlin is not on that list, BUT how about something swiss?
They are neutral, have no history of warmongers or colonizers and are centrally located.
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 23 '23
It would be fitting, we're also rather centrally located.
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u/AerospaceTechNerd Österreich Jan 22 '23
Hamburg. It's (I think) the biggest city in Europe (aside from Istanbul maybe but there is the fight abt "Continental") which is not a national capital.
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u/schnitzel-kuh Nordrhein-Westfalen Jan 22 '23
Hamburg isnt even the biggest city in germany
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Jan 22 '23
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u/Kind_Revenue4810 Helvetia Jan 22 '23
Why not?
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Jan 22 '23
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u/KronusTempus Yuropean Jan 22 '23
Yea just look at the US, an insignificant backwater really…hasn’t done much in the past 100 years…
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u/Pitiful-Brilliant301 Jan 22 '23
Idk why, but I feel like the whole of UK would be the capital of Europe. Up there in their high horse unreachable by the peasants.
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u/nyararagisan Türkiye Jan 22 '23
öropears stop fantasizing about taking eastern Thrace challenge (impossible)
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u/Sigsen Jan 22 '23
I have an irrational dislike of Brussels and I like Milan, so the answer is obvious
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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '23
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