A purchase transaction is a different thing from a subscription. It would be a more meaningful comparison if your example happened at Costco where you need a membership to shop. You'd get either your groceries or your $250 back, but you'd be banned from the store and you wouldn't get your membership fee refunded.

The Guiana Space Centre isn't a proper space port? Guyane is a region of France, just like Normandy or Pays de la Loire or the 15 others.

Dependence on Russia is quite sharply down. In Q1 2022 the EU imported 63 billion EUR worth of goods from Russia, in Q3 2025 only 5.7 billion. So down 90%.

In terms of fossil fuels:

- Russia isn't even in the top 6 oil supplies of the EU. The top 6 are USA, Norway, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iraq. They make up ~60% of EU oil imports.

- In raw natural gas: Norway, Algeria, UK and Azerbaijan supply 81% of EU imports.

- In liquefied natural gas: USA, Qatar and Algeria supply 68% of EU imports.

Add to that Dutch and Danish North Sea oil and gas and it's evident the EU is not "dependent" on Russia.

Needing to put in >1000 EUR in starting capital is not uncommon. The "cheapest Danish limited liability company, the Aps needs 20k DKK up front, i.e. ~3000 EUR. In Sweden an AB needs 25k SEK, ~2300 EUR.

And you can always dissolve the company and take the capital out again tax free, so what's the big deal?

The capital situation is especially dumb. There's been a lot of debate recently in Denmark about why our pension funds invest a lot of money in US venture capital funds that then invest in Danish startups that have moved to the Bay Area. The same money could have been invested in the same startups here in Europe.

Just as much as they voted for the individual government ministers in their own country.

1. In this case, not using the energy at all would have been better. 2. The legislature of a sovereign polity would have, and be able to delegate, that right. If and when the legislature should make use of that right is a political question.

In this case they aren't destroying the unsold winter coats so they can keep doing this under the new law.

The clothing that ends up in the landfill also needed to be transported, stored and organized. So if you don't produce those clothes to begin with you not only save the pollution and resource usage that would come from producing it, but also the pollution and resource usage from transporting, etc. It may _cost_ the company more, but only producing what can be sold will be strictly less polluting.

There's no way to perfectly forecast demand; all things equal I'd prefer that companies overproduce and we live in an age of plenty with a bit of waste (which companies are already incentivized to avoid), rather than face shortages in goods.

EU is a net food exporter and the only agricultural products the EU isn't self-sufficient in are animal feed, sugar, and tropical fruits & vegetables.

So, no, EU farmers are struggling at the moment because they aren't as competitive on the global markets as they used to. Not because Europeans aren't buying their food anymore.

Now why do you think they’re not competitive? Think about this more than one layer.