All of them already enjoy, to varying degrees, unfettered, largely
duty-free, access to the EU. To belong, a few - like Estonia - would
have to dismantle a much admired edifice of economic liberalism.
Most of them would have to erect barriers to trade and the free
movement of labor and capital where none existed. All of them would be
forced to encumber their fragile economies with tens of thousands of
pages of prohibitively costly labor, intellectual property rights,
financial, and environmental regulation. None stands to enjoy the same
benefits as do the more veteran members - notably in agricultural and
regional development funds.
Joining the EU would deliver rude economic and political shocks to the
candidate countries. A brutal and rather sudden introduction of
competition in hitherto much-sheltered sectors of the economy, giving
up recently hard-won sovereignty, shouldering the debilitating cost of
the implementation of reams of guideline, statutes, laws, decrees, and
directives, and being largely powerless to influence policy outcomes.
Faced with such a predicament, some countries may even reconsider.
THE WAR IN IRAQ
The Euro-Atlantic Divide
By: Dr. Sam Vaknin
Also published by United Press International (UPI)
The countries of central and east Europe - especially those slated to
join the European Union (EU) in May next year - are between the
American rock and the European hard place.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25