Moreover, the disparity between the countries assembled in the august
conference precludes a common label. Slovenia's GDP per capita is 7
times Macedonia's. The economies of the Czech Republic, Poland, and
Hungary are light years removed from those of Yugoslavia or even
Bulgaria.
Nor do these countries attempt real integration. While regional talk
shops, such as ASEAN and the African Union, embarked on serious efforts
to establish customs and currency zones - the countries of central and
eastern Europe have drifted apart and intentionally so. Intra-regional
trade has declined every single year since 1989. Intra-regional foreign
direct investment is almost non-existent.
Macedonia's exports to Yugoslavia, its next door neighbor, amount to
merely half its exports to the unwelcoming European Union - and are
declining. Countries from Bulgaria to Russia have shifted 50-75 percent
of their trade from their traditional COMECON partners to the European
Union and, to a lesser degree, the Middle East, the Far East and the
United States.
Nor do the advanced members of the club fancy a common label. Slovenia
abhors its Balkan pedigree. Croatia megalomaniacally considers itself
German. The Czechs and the Slovaks regard their communist elopement a
sad aberration as do the Hungarians.
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