[Info-vax] HP stopping VMS paper documentation ?

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article <javucj$gao$1 at Iltempo.Update.UU.SE>, Johnny Billquist
<bqt at softjar.se> writes: 

> You know, Jan-Erik, this might also be a good time to point out that 
> Sweden do not use the Euro... Some people might not know that not all EU 
> countries are Euro countries.

There is a great Venn diagramme in Wikipedia which shows the 
relationship between most of the various institutions with "Euro(pe)" in 
the name (and there are many), though not the EBU (which gave us the 
Eurovision Song Contest). 

> Denmark and England both have a clause in their EU membership conditions 
> stating that they are allowed to stay out of the Euro. Sweden just 
> invented saying "no" (after a referendum) when the question was popped. 
> Very upsetting to the EU, and I think EU still haven't figured out how 
> to classify Sweden in this regard. Sweden is one (of a very few) 
> countries who actually fulfill the conditions for converting to the 
> euro, and they really did expect that anyone would want to say no at 
> that point, so they have not provisioned for that situation.

Right.  In addition to the general criteria, to join one has to 
participate in a system of fixed exchange rates for two years.  By not 
signing up to this, Sweden can stay clear of the Euro as long as it 
wants.  No-one expected this move, and this loophole is now closed, so 
that new members to the EU have to adopt the Euro as soon as possible.

Denmark, Sweden and the UK (and some other countries) have other 
exceptions to the rules which were negotiated at some point.  IIRC, in 
the case of Sweden these included various restrictions on the sale of 
alcohol, but also the permission to continue to sell "snus", which is 
actually illegal in the rest of the EU.  (Snus is similar to what in the 
USA is called "snuff", e.g. Skoal, Copenhagen (one or both of these 
names probably indicate a Scandinavian origin) and Happy Days, i.e. 
powdered tobacco which one can place in various orifices (usually the 
mouth).  There are even versions where it is in something like a teabag, 
making it more hygienic.)