EU Expansion Could Add Uncertainty to Europe's Future

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 18, 2003

EU Expansion Could Add Uncertainty to Europe's Future

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April 16, 2003 is indeed a historic day for Europe. On the day, leaders of the European Union (EU) and 10 candidate countries signed accession documents in Athens, Greece, sealing the biggest ever enlargement in EU's history.

But after the champagne, people may ask: Does size matter, after all? Will the newcomers, most of them Eastern European countries, help unite the 15-member bloc, or, rather, tear them further apart?

The current 15 EU members are already bitterly divided over the US-led war on Iraq. While Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Denmark supported Washington, France and Germany, which are seen as champions of European integration, led a worldwide campaign against the war.

Surprisingly, certain candidate countries distanced themselves from France and Germany and leant toward the United States and Britain. In January, the prime ministers of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, and leaders of Britain, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Denmark issued a joint statement to back Washington's stance on Iraq.

Poland became a front-runner among the EU candidates by sending troops to Iraq to help Americans. Other countries also offered support, such as allowing the United States to use their air space.

Analysts believe the bold EU expansion will probably result in a new political order in Europe, in which the 10 candidate states tend to preserve their own values and would inevitably defy the Franco-German leadership.

As a major power in central and eastern Europe, Poland has been trying to expand its influence in the region. Polish media recently asked: Why should the EU pursue a common foreign policy shaped by French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder? Poland is seen to be quite happy with its new relationship with the United States and is hoping to elevate its political status in international issues.

As the 10 countries -- Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia -- become formal EU members next year, Washington could easily wield its influence on the EU's political orientation through these countries, which it called "new Europe."

Chirac, who might have sensed the danger, warned the new members to do more for European unity.

"This new Europe will not be able to fulfill our citizens' expectations if, as we are seeing in the current (Iraq) crisis, its political ambitions are not clarified and its running is not extensively rethought," Chirac said in Athens on Wednesday.

"The European Union is about more than just a large market, common policies, a single currency and free movement. It is more importantly about a collective ambition, shared disciplines, firm solidarity and naturally looking to the European family."

In a tirade that shocked the world in February, Chirac denounced Eastern European countries as "not very well behaved and reckless" and said they had "missed a great opportunity to shut up(on the Iraq issue)."

Although France and Germany have begun to mend fences with Washington and Britain, they will not give up ambitions to turn Europe into an important polar of the world. New members of the EU, unfortunately, seem to be quite comfortable with a world dominated by the United States and may not share the Franco-German dream.

Political integration, set down as a goal of the European Union in the founding Maastricht Treaty, might well become a more difficult job.

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