The
EU is perceived in east Europe as a toothless, though rich, club,
corrupted by its own economic interests and inexorably driven by its
bloated bureaucracy.
The EU and its goodwill and stake in the region are taken for granted -
while America has to be constantly appeased and mollified.
Still, the members of the Vilnius Groups have misconstrued the signs of
the gathering storm: the emerging European rapid deployment force and
common foreign policy; the rapprochement between France and Germany at
the expense of the pro-American but far less influential Britain, Italy
and Spain; the constitutional crisis setting European federalists
against traditional nationalists; the growing rupture between "Old
Europe" and the American "hyperpower".
The new and aspiring members of NATO and the EU now face a moment of
truth and are being forced to reveal their hand. Are they pro-American,
or pro-German (read: pro federalist Europe)? Where and with whom do
they see a common, prosperous future? What is the extent of their
commitment to the European Union, its values and its agenda?
The proclamations of the European eight (including the three central
European candidates) and the Vilnius Ten must have greatly disappointed
Germany - the unwavering sponsor of EU enlargement.
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