East, west meet in the expanded EU<\/p>\n
Veeramalla Anjaiah
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
The 15-member European Union (EU), Europe's most powerful and
\nprosperous grouping, is creating another milestone in its history
\non Saturday when its 12-starred blue flag sweeps aside the last
\nvestiges of the Cold War and allows millions of Central and
\nEastern Europeans to formally rejoin the European family.<\/p>\n
The eight Central and Eastern European (CEE) states -- Poland,
\nHungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia
\nand Lithuania -- Cyprus and Malta, which have the fastest growing
\neconomies -- are joining the EU with the hope of a bright future.<\/p>\n
The historic enlargement -- the fifth and biggest since 1973
\n-- from 15 to 25 member states represents the final lifting of
\nthe iron curtain and remains one of the greatest achievements of
\nthe grouping.<\/p>\n
\"Today, as the logic of the Iron Curtain finally disappears,
\nwe must do everything so that no other curtain arises on the
\neastern frontier of Poland and the EU. Let us remain open,\" wrote
\nPolish daily Gazeta Wyborcza's editor-in-chief Adam Michnik in
\nthe International Herald Tribune newspaper.<\/p>\n
For most of the new member countries, who suffered from world
\nwars, communism, totalitarianism and genocide for almost eight
\ndecades and separated from the Western Europe in the name of
\nideology, the entry is like another liberation (after the fall of
\ncommunism in late 1980s) on one side and an opportunity to share
\nthe EU's goals of freedom, democracy and prosperity on the other.<\/p>\n
French President Jacques Chirac commended the enlargement on
\nThursday as a giant step to make the EU a major economic power.<\/p>\n
\"By welcoming in the countries that have suffered most from
\nthe divisions of the past, the Union is a giant step. Because,
\nwith its 455 million inhabitants, the Union is asserting itself
\nas a first-class economic power,\" Chirac said in Paris.<\/p>\n
The new member countries, with a composite population of about
\n75 million people, speaking nine different languages (existing
\nmembers have 11 languages) and GDP of US$320 billion, will reap
\nbenefits of joining a common market of 455 million people on
\nSaturday.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the EU's customs union, single market and single
\ncurrency, the people, goods and services and money move around
\nwithin the EU as freely as within one country. These freedoms are
\nextended to the 10 newcomers on par with the existing members.<\/p>\n
Despite the prospect of more aid and trade, the new members
\nmay not be getting the same benefits as Spain, Portugal, Ireland
\nand Greece received when they joined the EU, given -- perhaps --
\nthe new members' size, per capita income and unemployment rate.<\/p>\n
The average per capita income of new members is $11,500 in
\ncompared to the EU-15's $25,200. The average unemployment rate of
\nthese newcomers is at 14.9 percent, compared to old members'
\nunemployment rate of 8.2 percent<\/p>\n
It is a fact that all these 10 countries are still poor, by EU
\nstandards. The eight CEE countries have an average GDP per head
\nof about one quarter of today's EU average.<\/p>\n
Though the road to the Enlargement Day or E-Day was difficult,
\nthe new countries, which are poorer than the existing members,
\nfinally made their dreams come true.<\/p>\n
Because they had to change their thousands of rules and
\nregulations, cut the budget for the existing welfare programs and
\nsubsidies with painful repercussions to meet the EU's rules and
\nstandards in a short span of time.<\/p>\n
The EU has allocated 21.84 billion euros to help the newcomers
\nprepare for accession, and 58.07 billion euros over five years to
\nhelp meet the cost of enlargement after candidate countries have
\nbecome member states.<\/p>\n
The European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the EU,
\nestimates that the present enlargement will add upto 1 percent
\nextra growth each year for the newcomers during the first 10
\nyears of their membership.<\/p>\n
Besides strict criteria for admitting new members, the EU
\nimposes obligations and duties as well as rights on its members.
\nThe members have an obligation to implement the EU rules which
\nthey adopted. The EC will monitor the implementation of the EU
\nrules.<\/p>\n
After the enlargement, perhaps, these former Soviet satellite
\nstates will be having, the Brussels-based fastidious bureaucrats
\nor \"Eurocrats\" as their new bosses in place of their Moscow-based
\nformer bosses, Communists.<\/p>\n
The regional groupings like the Association of Southeast Asian
\nNations (ASEAN) can learn from the EU experience and explore the
\nidea of establishing a similar grouping in Asia. The enlarged EU
\ncan offer more opportunities for Indonesia, which has close ties
\nwith some of the new members for more than four decades, in terms
\nof trade and investment.<\/p>\n
The 25 members of the EU are all rather different, in their
\ndifferent ways including population, size, richness, language and
\nculture.<\/p>\n
These differences would pose a major challenge for the
\nfunctioning of the EU and in the formulation of its policies.<\/p>\n
Given the differences among the old and new members on various
\ninternational issues, including Iraq issue, it would be very
\ndifficult to formulate a common foreign policy of the EU.<\/p>\n
Yet, the EU -- which was originally started as a coal and
\nsteel community in 1951 -- had succeeded in unifying the divided
\nEastern and the Western parts of Europe and must look to the
\nfuture to absorb the remaining European countries to create a
\nunited Europe that is strong and prosperous.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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