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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 11/04
Europe and Its Neighbors
Gianni Vaggi
Occasional Paper Series No. 35
November 11-12, 1999
Abstract
The paper is an introduction to some of the issues that the enlargement, both in terms of memberships and association, will involve.
Many neighbouring countries have already asked for membership; the discussion centres around countries which belong to two well defined geo-political areas, with different economic characteristics. On the one hand there are the Countries of Central-Eastern Europe (CCEE) and on the Mediterranean Countries, or rather the other Mediterranean Countries (MC), that is to say non-members of the EU. Of the Central-Eastern European countries, the following have asked for membership of the EU: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the three Baltic republics: Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia; in June 1996, Slovenia reached an agreement on membership of the EU. On July the 16th the European Commission has submitted to the Parliament a proposal for the widening of the EU called Agenda 2000, in which among other suggestions there is an indication of a first group of applicants possibly joining the union early next century; they are the Czech Rep. , Hungary, Poland , Estonia and Slovenia.
There are fewer applications for membership among the Mediterranean countries: Cyprus, Malta, Turkey and Morocco. In fact, Morocco has been declared to be inadmissible in 1986, but this does not imply that its request for membership should be denied in the future. Cyprus, the Greek part of it , seems to be a likely candidate, but that poses problems with Turkey which has been kept waiting since 1964. One must also consider the other countries, apart from Slovenia, born from the ashes of the ex- Yugoslavia, which obviously look keenly towards Europe, along with Albania and the other Mediterranean countries which have not yet asked for membership.
The political reasons for which the problems of expansion and association will be seen to be increasingly evident in the next ten years are clear. The Central-Eastern European countries are no longer under the influence of the former Soviet Union and are in a transitional phase from a centrallyplanned economy to a market economy.
In the Mediterranean there are countries which are now receiving ‘association agreements’ with the European Union, notably Morocco, Tunisia and Israel, but these agreements lack a comprehensive approach to the problem of the integration of these economies into the Union. Trade aspects cannot be separated from the financial ones, from this point of view some indications should be taken from the example of NAFTA in North America.
At the same time the issue of enlargement implies a major reconsideration of the Common Agricultural Policy and a of the mechanism of transfer of structural funds to the poorest countries and regions.
