Founded in 1957 by six pioneering nations seeking an end to war
and conflict in Europe, today's 27-member European Union (EU) has
grown into the world's most sophisticated experiment in regional
cooperation and collective sovereignty.
The original EU members Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands and West Germany still play a powerful role in
determining EU policy and future direction.
But successive enlargements have also seen the entry of other
influential nations including Britain in 1973, Spain in 1986 and
Poland in 2004 whose clout can be felt both within the EU's
corridors of power and on the wider regional and global stage.
"Enlargement is one of the EU's most powerful policy tools,"
says a senior EU diplomat. In the 1980s, the prospect of joining
Europe helped spur democracy in Greece, Spain and Portugal. In the
late 1990s, it was the pull of the EU that helped transform central
and eastern Europe into modern market-driven countries.
The EU's big-bang expansion in May 2004 to include eight former
communist nations as well as Malta and Cyprus was the bloc's fifth
and most ambitious enlargement to date.
Continuing the process, Bulgaria and Romania were welcomed into
the club on January 1, 2007. Their entry symbolized a further
"reunification of our European family", said an enthusiastic
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
EU policymakers insist they are still committed to using the
bloc's "soft power" ability to bring peace, stability and
prosperity to countries in its immediate neighborhood.
But EU leaders, voicing increasing wariness of further
expansion, now insist that the future pace of enlargement will be
dictated by the ability of present members to "absorb and
integrate" the mainly poorer states knocking at EU gates.
Membership negotiations are under way with Croatia and at least
partially with Turkey. Macedonia has been recognized as eligible
for entry although actual accession discussions have yet to
begin.
EU enlargement chief Olli Rehn also remains adamant that the
club has not closed its doors to western Balkan nations which he
says have a "clear European perspective".
However, there is no denying that the EU is in the midst of a
sudden attack of expansion jitters.
The going is getting tougher even for new members. Several "old"
EU nations have maintained restrictions on the free movement of
citizens from central and eastern European countries which joined
the bloc in 2004.
Also Romania and Bulgaria are subject to stringent "accompanying
measures" the toughest ever imposed by the EU on acceding nations
which could include trade and aid sanctions if they do not fight
corruption and organized crime.
With many in Brussels and other EU capitals talking openly of
"enlargement fatigue", Barroso is among those insisting that the
bloc must decide on the future of the failed constitution which was
rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005 before any
further expansion.
Officials in Brussels argue that the EU needs a new treaty to
ensure efficient and effective decision-making in an enlarged
Europe. There is also concern at the budgetary costs of further
expansion.
Most significantly, however, EU-hopefuls are being told they
must wait patiently in the wings while the bloc's leaders try to
ease public fears about increased east-west immigration flows.
Much-publicized French public concerns about a flood of cheap
"Polish plumbers" who would steal French jobs are believed to have
convinced some voters to reject the EU constitution. Fears over the
entry of mainly Muslim Turkey may have contributed to the
cold-shouldering of the treaty by French and Dutch nationals.
"We know we cannot take in every state that wants to join,"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after EU leaders meeting in
Brussels on December 14-15 last year adopted a go-slow stance on
further expansion.
Backing Merkel's stance are the leaders of Luxembourg, Belgium
and The Netherlands. France is also wary about swift, further
enlargement.
Although Britain, Sweden and most of the central and eastern
European states want expansion to continue, leaders at the summit
agreed that new countries will only be admitted if existing EU
states are satisfied they can deal with financial, social and
institutional burdens the applicants pose.
(China Daily via agencies March 23, 2007)
