|
|
EUROPEAN UNION: The World's New Leading Economic Power
Analysis by Mario de Queiroz*
LISBON, Apr 30 (IPS) - Even the most far-sighted observers probably did not
imagine in 1952, when six countries created the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), that the
treaty would be the embryo of a bloc that is becoming
the world's leading economic power, even slightly
surpassing the size of the U.S. economy.
May 1, 2004 marks the birth of today's new Europe, no
longer separated by the ''Iron curtain'', which for 45
years divided the continent between ''capitalists'' and
''communists''.
For the first time, 10 countries are joining the bloc
simultaneously, including eight from the defunct Soviet
bloc; Cyprus; and the tiny island of Malta, a British
colony until 1964.
To better understand the origins of today's newly
expanded bloc, it is necessary to go back to the 1952
treaty and the integrationist trend that five years later led
ECSC members Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg,
the Netherlands, and the then Federal Republic of
Germany (West Germany) to sign the Rome Treaty,
which created the European Economic Community
(EEC).
The EEC was joined by Denmark, the United Kingdom
and Ireland in 1973; Greece in 1981; and Spain and
Portugal in 1986. In 1992 the Maastrict Treaty officially
created the European Union (EU), which was joined by
Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995.
With the admission of Cyprus, the Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland,
Slovakia and Slovenia on Saturday, the 15-member
bloc of 378 million people expands to a 25-nation EU
with a combined population of 453 million.
According to figures from Eurostat, the Statistical Office
of the European Communities, the EU's combined
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow to 12.1 trillion
dollars, slightly higher than the 12.04 trillion dollar GDP
of the United States, which will thus lose its position as
the world's leading economic power.
Joining the EU amounts to ''staking our bets on peace,''
Gunter Verheugen, the bloc's commissioner for
enlargement, said this week in Lisbon.
Verheugen recalled that ''men like Robert Schuman
and Jean Monet (in France) and Konrad Adenauer (in
Germany) not only understood (in the 1950s) the
absolute urgency of restoring peace on our continent
once and for all, but they also knew that the only way to
achieve that objective was through economic
integration and the development of common policies.''
The political spectrum of the new 25-member EU has
been dominated by the right since four years ago, when
the then-candidate countries took part in European
Parliament elections for the first time.
The conservative European People's Party (Christian
Democrats)/European Democrats holds 231 of the 622
seats in the European Parliament in Strasbourg,
followed by the Party of European Socialists, with 173.
After that come the centrist European Liberal
Democrats and Reformists (52 seats), the Confederal
Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left
(49), the Greens/European Free Alliance (44), and the
extreme-right Union for a Europe of Nations (23).
The remaining 50 parliamentarians represent small
parties or are ''non-attached'' members, who describe
themselves as independent.
Portuguese economic analyst Luis Sarfield Cabral
says that ''despite all of the defects of the European
community, adhering to it was and is a priority for many
countries,'' because joining the bloc ''means
strengthening still-insecure democracies.''
Nevertheless, Sarfield Cabral says the enlargement
process has been accompanied by doubts with respect
to the future of the EU.
He says the most frequent questions are ''whether it
will be diluted into a mere free trade area, the objective
of many opponents of integration who have
nonetheless applauded the expansion. Or will a
directorate of the big members (France, Germany, Italy
and the UK) be in control, leading to a loss of the sense
of community?''
Especially in Greece and Portugal, the least developed
EU countries, expansion has given rise to worries
about the diversion of EU structural and cohesion funds
and foreign investment to the new member states.
To that is added expected competition from countries
with cheaper labour power and higher productivity
levels, especially Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech
Republic.
The former socialist candidates made a huge effort in
terms of overall development and transformation to
prepare for Saturday's big event.
The ex-socialist nations, which up to the early 1990s
had planned economies, underwent major privatisation
processes of industry and the banks, liberalised their
markets and prices, created new bodies to guarantee
fair competition and overhauled their judicial systems.
But in terms of the number of cars, computers and
cell-phones, the countries of eastern and central
Europe are even surpassed by Portugal, which ranks
last in the EU in terms of development.
On the other hand, the former socialist states win
handily with respect to access to cultural events like
concerts, ballet performances or plays, as well as
reading habits.
More people read newspapers in the countries set to
join Saturday than in the 15 EU members. In Hungary,
465 of every 1,000 inhabitants read the newspaper
every day, far above the level in France (181 per 1,000),
Spain (120 per 1,000), Portugal (91 per 1,000) and
Greece (82 per 1,000).
Other important indicators of development, such as the
proportion of GDP allocated to research and
development, show that Slovenia, with 1.5 percent of
GDP, and the Czech Republic (1.4 percent), surpass
Italy, which earmarks just 1.0 percent, Ireland (1.2
percent), and Greece and Portugal (0.7 percent).
Meanwhile, the overall infant mortality rate of the 15 EU
members, 4.5 per 1,000 live births, is similar to that of
nearly all of the new members, with the exception of
Latvia (9.8 per 1,000), Lithuania (7.9), Poland (7.5) and
Hungary (7.2).
The average infant mortality rate of the 25-member EU
will be 4.8 per 1,000 live births, lower than the U.S. rate
of 6.9 per 1,000.
The eight percent average unemployment rate in the
15-member EU will now increase to nine percent, three
percentage points higher than unemployment in the
U.S. Inflation, however, will remain unchanged at two
percent, lower than the U.S. rate.
The biggest differences, which have made many
countries in western Europe fear an ''invasion from the
east'', are seen in the national minimum wage, in which
France is in the lead, with 1,926 dollars a month, while
Portugal ranks last, with 516 dollars a month.
Of the 10 new members, only Malta has a higher
minimum monthly wage than Portugal. The island
nation's minimum wage of 664 dollars a month puts it
on an equal footing with Spain and close to Greece's
750 dollars, and Slovenia's 560 dollars.
IPS collected opinions from east European immigrants
in Lisbon and residents of Budapest and Warsaw.
Antón Mifka, a Slovakian metal-worker, pointed out that
70 percent of his fellow countrymen and women voted
for accession to the EU ''because they believe their
living conditions will improve.''
But he lamented that in order to attract foreign
investment, the centre-right government in Bratislava
modified the country's labour laws to make it easier to
hire and fire workers.
An Estonian doctor, Marko Kalle, who owns a small
surgical equipment company, said that although he is
not terribly excited about admission to the EU,
''Brussels must be better than the Soviets.''
Andrea Czakóné, who works for Pepsi in Hungary, said
it is yet to be seen whether admission will be good for
the country, ''because if the cost of labour goes up,
foreign companies will leave the country.''
Polish blacksmith Henryk Janka sounded bitter. ''Being
a blacksmith means I'm practicing a trade on its way to
extinction, and Poland was going down the same road.
We have no option. The alternative is an alliance with
Russia, and I prefer the EU to that any day.''
* Luis Naves in Warsaw, Katalin Muharay in Budapest
and the editorial staff of the Lisbon weekly VISAO
contributed to this report. (END/2004)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What is RSS?
