European Union leaders kicked off a weekend of celebrations Friday to welcome Croatia into their fold, presenting a freshly signed “Welcome Croatia!” card to Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic during a summit in Brussels. Hours earlier however, the club’s stewards were examining the deep cracks in the edifice: alarming youth unemployment rates, blockages in the credit pipelines feeding the EU’s economic backbone of small businesses, and growing scepticism among citizens that Brussels can lead them out of the crisis.
“(Croatia) is getting in just as other member states are contemplating their exit amidst rising debt, mounting unemployment, an ailing euro, burgeoning political squabbles, and widespread public indignation,” wrote Corina Stratulat of the European Policy Centre think-tank. But for Croatia, becoming the EU’s 28th member offers hope of a better future, said Judy Dempsey of Carnegie Europe think-tank. “For politicians in Zagreb, joining the EU was about drawing a line under the wretched and bloody past of recent civil war,” she said.
It is not the only country keenly eyeing up the benefits of the European project. The bloc’s leaders agreed Friday to strike an association deal with Kosovo and endorsed Latvia’s transition into the eurozone. But the biggest prize went to Serbia, in the form of EU accession talks granted in return for significant steps towards normalising relations with its breakaway province Kosovo. Six other Balkan countries hope to join the EU, while eastern European states including Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova expect a summit in November to bring them closer to the bloc.
“Joining the EU is about binding one’s country to a strong and proven system of values that can underpin a fragile democracy,” Dempsey wrote. “Europe is a road, is a journey, it is a value system that we need to adopt, a legislative system, a way of life,” Serbian premier Ivica Dacic said earlier in the week. But their leaders’ enthusiasm is not shared by all citizens in the EU’s neighbourhood, as the problems loom larger than the potential benefits.
The sentiment among Serbia’s many sceptics was summed up by a cartoon in mass-circulation daily Vecernje Novosti, picturing the EU as a sinking ship being abandoned by people in lifeboats – while Serbia, pictured as a small boat, ties up a rope in preparation to board. Croatians have also lost enthusiasm for EU membership over the course of the 10 years that it has taken to join. The January 2012 referendum showed a two-thirds majority in favour of membership – but only a 43.5 per cent turnout.
In Latvia meanwhile, polls indicate only a third of inhabitants are in favour of adopting the euro, fearing that the move will drive up prices. Iceland also has a cautionary tale. It applied to join the EU after a crushing banking crisis in 2009, but as the economy has improved, enthusiasm towards the bloc has waned. In May, the country’s new government put membership talks on hold.
Meanwhile, the EU’s commitment to open up a new negotiation chapter with Turkey, sometimes described as the “eternal candidate,” came amid fears that the country could lose interest in what Europe had to offer. Seen from within however, the continued appeal of the shared European project is being taken as a reassuring sign that the bloc’s problems are outweighed by its achievements.
“The eurozone is again a club with a queue – not at the exit, but at the entrance,” EU President Herman Van Rompuy said of Latvia’s euro bid. EU Economy Commissioner Olli Rehn called it a “sign of confidence in our common currency and further evidence that those who predicted the disintegration of the euro area were wrong.” But before the bubbles could settle in the sparkling Croatian wine with which EU leaders toasted Zagreb’s accession, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the 28-member EU still had much to do to bring its house in order. “We need to avoid any form of complacency. Tensions still persist, credit is too tight, growth is too low,” he said.
Helen Maguire, "EU club retains appeal, despite internal troubles," Business Recorder. 2013-07-07.
Keywords:
Social sciences
, Economics
, European Union
, Unemployment rates
, Public indignation
, European Policy
, Civil war
, Mass-circulation
, EU membership
, Banking crisis
, EU Economy
, Common currency
, European Commission
, Complacency
, Commissioner
, Neighborhood
, Democracy
, Eurozone
, Politicians
, Crisis
