EU Enlargement

EU Enlargement

Situation: 2004When Ireland “joined Europe” in 1973, its per-capita

income was just 62% of the EU average; by 2002 it was 121%. anyone talking to politicians from the new member states will know the refrain: “We want to be like Ireland.”

(Economist, April 15 2004)

Poem delivered at EU Enlargement Ceremony by Irish Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney BEACONS AT BEALTAINE Phoenix Park, May Day, 2004

Uisce: water. And fionn: the water's clear.But dip and find this Gaelic water Greek:A phoenix flames upon fionn uisce here.

Strangers were barbaroi to the Greek ear.Now let the heirs of all who could not speak

The language, whose ba-babbling was unclear,Come with their gift of tongues past each frontier

And find the answering voices that they seekAs fionn and uisce answer phoenix here.

The May Day hills were burning, far and near,When our land's first footers beached boats in the creek

In uisce, fionn, strange words that soon grew clear;So on a day when newcomers appear

Let it be a homecoming and let us speakThe unstrange word, as it behoves us here,

Move lips, move minds and make new meanings flareLike ancient beacons signalling, peak to peak,From middle sea to north sea, shining clear

As phoenix flame upon fionn uisce here.

New member states and those still knocking at the door!

• Estonia• Lithuania • Latvia• Poland• Slovakia• Czech Republic• Slovenia• Hungary• Romania• Bulgaria• Turkey• Malta• Cyprus

*

Click on the country name to read reports from our network ofcorrespondents    Date Country % turnout % Yes % No

8 March Malta 92 54 46

23 March Slovenia 60 89 10

12 April Hungary 46 83 16

11 May Lithuania 63 91 8

16-17 May Slovakia 52 93 6

8 June Poland 59 77 22

15-16 June CzechRepublic

55 77 22

14Sept Estonia 64 67 33

20Sept Latvia 72 67 32

* Cyprus, the 10th EU applicant, has ratified membership without a popular vote

Results of the EU membership referendums(2003)

EstoniaArea:  45,227 square km

Population: 1,439,197 (January 2000), only 31.8 per square km

Capital city: Tallinn (population 408,329 or 28% of total population)

Currency: kroon (EEK). Fixed exchange rate: 8 EEK = 1 DEM; 1 euro = 15.65 EEK

Taxsystem: 26% flat income tax, 18% VAT. Reinvested corporate profit is tax free

Language:  Estonian

Head of State:  President, elected for 5 years. Current President: Mr. Lennart Meri. Next election: September 2001

Parliament:  The Riigikogu. A unicameral parliament of 101 members. Term: 4 years. The last elections were held in March 1999

Administrative division: 

15 counties, 205 rural municipalities and 42 towns

Estonia

• Nato Member in late March 2004.

• Prime Minister – Juhan Parts

LatviaFull name: Republic of LatviaFounded on:November 18, 1918Population: 2.37 millionArea:  64 589 sq. kmTotal length of national border: 1 800 kmBorders with other countries:Estonia, Russia, Belarus, LithuaniaCapital city: Riga (population: around 800,000)Currency:lats (LVL). One lats consists of 100

santims. The lats has been the currency since May 1993

Official language:  LatvianHead of State:  President, who is elected by the

Saeima for a period of 4 years. The President promulgates laws, appoints the Prime Minister and performs representative functions. The current presiden, Ms Vaira Vike-Freiberga, was elected in July 1999.

Type of government: Democratic, parliamentary republic. Legislative power

is in the hands of a single-chamber parliament – the Saeima, composed of 100 deputies. Parliamentary elections take place every 4 years. The last parliamentary elections took place in the autumn of 1998.

Application for EU accession: 27 October 1995

Indulis Emsis, of the Greens and Farmers Union, became Europe's first Green prime minister after his predecessor, Einars Repse, resigned less than three months before the May EU entry date

LATVIA

Lithuania• Area: 65,300 square km• Population:3.7 million

80 percent of the population is Lithuanian, 11 percent are Polish and 7 percent are Russians.

• Dominant religion: Roman Catholic• Capital city:Vilnius• Currency: Litas (1 litas=0.25USD)• Official language: Lithuanian (lietuviu)• Political system: Republic. New

constitution ratified in October 1992. The country is governed by the President, supreme legislative body Seimas (a unicameral Parliament of 141 members) and the Government

• Application for EU accession: 8 December 1995. Accession negotiations started in February 2000, Accession 1 May 2004

• NATO member March 2004

Valdas Adamkus was re-elected Lithuanian president in June 2004

Mr Brazauskas, a former president and Lithuania's last Communist boss of the Soviet era, took office in July 2001 after the previous centre-right government fell amid infighting over privatisation.

Issues: 80 percent of the country's energy is produced by the Ignalina nuclear plant. The plant, which uses the same model of reactors as those in the ill-fated Chornobyl plant in Ukraine, has been labeled unsafe by Brussels. Lithuania has already pledged to shut downThe first of the two reactors by 2005

Lithuania

SloveniaPopulation: Just under two million inhabitantsCapital city: LjubljanaCurrency:Slovenian tolar - SITGDP per capita: 16.100 PPS (2000 data), which

equals 71% of EU average. Slovenia is one of the most prosperous candidate countries for EU membership. The GDP of Slovenia is above Greece and close to that of Portugal

Official language: Slovene (slovenščina)Head of State: • The President of the Republic represents

Slovenia and is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces

Legislative bodies: • The Republic of Slovenia is a Parliamentary

democracy with the National Assembly (90 MPs) and the National Council (40 counsellors). The government, composed of Prime Minister and the cabinet, is the executive branch

Slovenia (2)

• GDP per capita is very close to Portugal's and approaching double that of the next wealthiest east European applicant, the Czech Republic.

HungaryCountry profile

Czech Republic

GDP/capita12,498 ECU (PPS) in 1999 (PPS) (Eurostat)59% of EU-15 average (1999)Currency1 Crown or CZK = 100 halire - 1 crown = c.37 EURO (January 2001)General Government budget2000 Budget: c. EURO 32 billionGovernment deficit9,5% of GDP (2001 forecast)Public debt35% if GDO (estimate 2001)Trade with EUSurplus: 0.1

Area:78,866km2Population:10.3 millionNeighbours: (border in km)Germany (646), Poland (658), Slovakia (215), Austria (362)mmDensity:131 inhabitants per km2mmDistribution66% urban population, 34% rural populationmm

Hungary

Population: 9.9 million (UN, 2003) Capital: Budapest Major language: Hungarian Major religion: Christianity Life expectancy: 68 years (men), 76 years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: 1 forint = 100 filler Main exports: Machinery and transport equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals GNI per capita: US $5,290 (World Bank, 2002) Internet domain: .hu

International dialling code: +36

Slovakia

PolandArea: 312,685 square kmPopulation: 38,654 million inhabitants,

of which 98% are ethnic PolesOfficial language: PolishConstitution: New Democratic Constitution passed in

1997Administrative division: 1999: 16 provinces (wojewodztwo), 308

counties (powiat) and 2.489 communes (gmina)

Application for EU accession: Submitted to the European Commission

in 1994

Marek Belka, a former finance minister, became prime minister following the resignation of Leszek Miller in early

May 2004, the day after EU accession. President: Aleksander Kwasniewski

Romania

Country profile(Under construction)

Turkey

• Turkey still does not meet the Copenhagen political criteria.– Turkey’s national

programme for the adoption of the acquis set the scene for a major constitutional reform package,

Malta

Cyprus

Bulgaria• Country profile• Area: • 110,993 sq. km• Population:• approximately 8 million citizens• Capital city:• Sofia• Borders:• To the north with Romania and the

Danube river, to the east is the Black Sea, to the south are Turkey and Greece, and to the west - the FYR of Macedonia and Yugoslavia.

• Form of State: • Parliamentary republic

December 2001 – Enl. schedule• DecemberSunday 2nd to Thursday 6thBelgian deputy

foreign affairs minister Annemie Neyts visits Cyprus, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Hungary on her pre-Laeken tour of the candidate countries

• Monday 3rdEuropean External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten visits Romania

• Monday 3rd, Tuesday 4thEU-Czech joint parliamentary committee meets, Brussels

• Tuesday 4th, Wednesday 5thCommission Director-General for Enlargement Eneko Landaburu visits Latvia

• Thursday 6th-Friday 7thEuropean Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner

How the east Europeans shape upDatabase

Germany• Germany: challenges:

– In the east, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, and Saxony--the Lander bordering Poland--support for enlargement is extremely low. Only one out of three residents in the region is in favor of the move

– Wages in Poland are as much as six times lower than in Germany • Germany and Austria pressed for an elective seven-year ban on the movement

of labor from new EU member states. – free competition in the service sector could have grave implications for

eastern Germany's already battered construction industry. • Germany : the opportunities:

– Germany's trade with Eastern and Central Europe accounts for about 10 percent of its total foreign trade, falling just $1 billion short of trade with NAFTA counties.

‘state-of-play’ - 2001

• France's foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine: suggestion - EU might consider simultaneously bringing into the EU all the twelve candidates currently negotiating their accession – Big bang!

• Hungary’s PM, Orban: the entire EU enlargement exercise could be put at risk if too many candidates with different levels of readiness joined the EU at the same time.

The Copenhagen Criteria (1)

• States must prove their respect for democratic principles, the rule of law, human rights and the protection of minorities

The Copenhagen Criteria(2)

• States must have functioning market economies able to cope with the competitive pressures and market forces of the EU– Agriculture: Enlargement will double the EU's

agricultural workforce and increase by 50% the EU's arable land area.

The Copenhagen Criteria (3)• States must be able to take on all the obligations of

membership, including incorporating into their national legal system all the laws agreed by the EU

– sheer technical slog of converting some 80,000 pages of EU law into domestic legislation is enormous – and states must try to ‘enact’ these laws

– Most controversial of all: EU environmental regulations and labour standards for health and safety.

• Says the EIU's Barysch: "Small companies that are left over from central planning and are operating fairly efficiently now would be put out of business by the introduction of full labour standards. Strict environmental standards would cause sectors such as steel and chemicals to lose competitiveness."

The ‘acquis’: EU regulations

• Fear: the EU's heavy-handed bureaucracy and its onerous regulations could stifle the entrepreneurial spirit that has been unleashed in their countries since the fall of communism.

A viewpoint from the ‘Economist’

The issues for the EU

• The EU budget: 96 billion euro– CAP and Structural Funds take 80%– How do the applicant states fit into this

scenario• Free movement of labour - thorny issue

Applicant states: their view• EU money:

– promise of EU membership bringing in additional billions in direct and portfolio investment that is transforming countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

– a conservative estimates that it will be running at 10 billion euro a year, or, 2 – 3 % of GDP

• Public Support:– Poland's accession to the EU has fallen to 49.6 percent from nearly 62 percent last

year, according to a recent poll carried out for Taylor Nelsen Sofres by the Czech institute Factum.

– The share of those supporting EU enlargement fell from 62.9 to 55.7 percent from last year

• The poll, based on a 12,042 sample in 11 Central and Eastern European countries, showed support to be the strongest in Slovenia, Bulgaria and Slovakia, and the weakest in Estonia. The share of those supporting EU enlargement fell from 62.9 to 55.7 percent from last year. mwjb 8 November issue of Gazeta Wyborcza p. 20

–

Commission view: November 2001

• Prodi: full EU members in time for European Parliament elections due in June 2004. – good news for Poland, Hungary, the Czech

Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta.

Applicant states: problems

• Corruption• Fraud• Trafficking ( women, drugs, )• Protection ( minorities)

Challenges and problems

• The big problem in bringing eastern European countries into the EU is: the desire for harmonization is taking precedence over the need for flexibility.– The EU insists the applicants adopt the acquis

wholesale, – the new entrants desire to be a part of every EU

programme going, regardless of its merits.