Guidebook to EU enlargement

The famous magazine “The Economist” in its latest issue runs a survey of European Union enlargement entitled “Europe’s magnetic attraction.” The 15 pages of the survey deal with all the aspects of the issue, from the reasons of the accession process to its possible effects.

Nobody seems to be wondering why those 15 EU member states are so intent on sharing their wealth with their poor relatives in the East.

The Economist, however, provides a few clues, though, one of them being history-related, saying that the enlargement of the EU is intended to erase the east-west division left by the Cold War, but is also about binding the wounds remaining from the Second World War.

Gunther Verheugen, the commissioner in charge of EU enlargement, lists three main reasons why the current 15 members of the Union are keen on pursuing enlargement.

The first is stability; the second is a moral obligation to help the victims of Nazism and communism; the third is the economic opportunity offered by the new markets of the east.

As for the political stability, which a democratic system provides, The Economist explains that “countries that are less settled (i.e. in terms of democracy), most notably Romania, are further back in the queue (i.e. of CEE candidates),” but highlights the fact that this is probably the smallest problem for the future united Europe.

Agriculture is the worst headache for the applicant countries, because 80% of EU’s budget accounts for money spent in this field and for helping the poor regions.

In the applicant countries, and particularly in Poland, agricultural plots are small and yields are low. Over 20% of the people in Poland are employed in the farming sector.

If the current EU elaborate system of agricultural support known as the common agricultural policy was fully extended to the east, EU would go bankrupt. The Union has also realised that many of the farmers from applicant countries would not qualify for subsidies anyway because their plots are too small.