WHEN French president Jacques Chirac snapped at countries waiting to join the European Union that “they would have been better advised to hold their tongues”, he was talking about the positions they had taken over the Iraq crisis. But his remark showed the countries concerned that they had not been accepted into the EU yet. There is still some way to go in the process of completing the enlargement negotiations, between the EU summit in Copenhagen last December and the signing of the accession treaty in Athens in April and its ratification by national parliaments (1).
The central European leaders probably failed to anticipate the angry response to their joint declaration, with Britain and Spain, of support for the United States and its war on Iraq. Chirac’s patronising tone was particularly irritating to countries that have only recently broken free from control by Moscow.
Their reaction was measured, but indignant. Few people in Prague, Warsaw or Budapest understood the implications of Chirac’s rebuke: that Europe is a community in which solidarity is required and you cannot expect to defy the majority with impunity, especially when you are just asking to join that community. Not only was the message itself unacceptable, but its timing seemed unfair, after 10 years of effort and sacrifice in pursuit of European reconciliation.
While the 10 candidate countries differ in many respects, their citizens often react similarly to the idea of European integration. They are badly informed about what lies ahead and easily manipulated by sensationalist media. The Czech Republic is an exception to this. The debate on EU membership has been conducted there in greater depth than in most of the other countries. The pro-European forces (Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Liberals) face large Eurosceptic movements like the Civic Democratic party (ODS) and the powerful Communist party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM). The ODS wants to join forces with the British (…)
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* Karel Bartak is the Czech News Agency correspondent for EU affairs in Brussels
(1) There will be a single accession treaty for all 10 new members: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta.
(2) Speech by Vaclav Klaus in the European parliament on 5 December 2001.
(3) The Fifteen will be able to impose the requirement to obtain a work permit, as on all other foreigners, for two years. This period can be extended for a further three years by any member state upon simple notification, and by two more years if there are “serious disturbances in the labour market”.
(4) Direct aid for the new member states will be phased in over 10 years: 25% of the total in 2004, 30% in 2005, 40% in 2006, and so on until 2013, at which point direct payments will be the same for all 25 members.
(5) The Commission coordinated and co-funded several reports on nuclear safety at Temelin, and forced the Czechs and Austrians to reach a final agreement at the highest level. On the Sudetenland issue, the European parliament produced experts’ reports recommending that the Czech Republic be allowed to join the EU without being obliged to repeal formally the Benes decrees. The Commission’s report reached the same conclusion.
(6) All barriers to trade have gradually been removed, except for certain agricultural products.
Source link : https://mondediplo.com/2003/04/13czechrepublic
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Publish date : 2011-10-22 12:22:39
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