Old Europe embracing New Europe

[Spiffor]

The absence of Turkey is no news : the new members of this salvo have been officially decided for years. After years of preparation to match EU requirements, this treaty is the last formality : it is only a symbolical date, without any decision being taken there.

The next enlargement is planned for 2007 IIRC, with Romania, Bulgaria, and the Baltic States (correct me if I'm wrong). It has been decided not long ago that Turkey would be out of this one. Turkey is trying to improve their human rights records drastically to match the EU requirements at some point. Turkey has an agreement with the EU, where trade is as advantageous as it would be under full membership, or more advantageous (i.e does'nt cut both ways).

[Saras]

Originally posted by Spiffor

The next enlargement is planned for 2007 IIRC, with Romania, Bulgaria, and the Baltic States (correct me if I'm wrong).

You're wrong; we signed the accession treaty yesterday; could have done it on friday, it's much better when you DON'T have to work with a hangover

[Spiffor]

And it was in the article too

So, how was the party yesterday ?

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Sava

Good. I think the door to the EU reads "Freedom loving and tolerant societies only".

I guess that means that Serbia gets in a decade after Turkey.

[Saras]

Originally posted by Spiffor

And it was in the article too

So, how was the party yesterday ?

Don't ask Got my arse kicked verbally by wife

[Spiffor]

Indeed, Serbia is not planned as of yet. I think no other country than Slovenia from the former Yugoslavia had plans for long to enter the EU. It is possible the end of the Milosevic era brought some political will to enter the EU in Serbia, but I don't know.

[JohnT]

[VetLegion]

Good work new members

I hope they make the most of it, and that citizens of europe accept them as brothers and equals.

Indeed, Serbia is not planned as of yet. I think no other country than Slovenia from the former Yugoslavia had plans for long to enter the EU. It is possible the end of the Milosevic era brought some political will to enter the EU in Serbia, but I don't know.

Arhm. Wrong. Croatia plans to 'catch the 2007 train' as it stated when officialy applying for membership recently. What are the chances of that actually happening I have no idea.

We are being kept out for most exotic reasons like Hague cooperation, human rights abuses, rampant nationalism and other trivia

Actually I want it to happen as soon as possible because I want to move to scandinavia and live off the welfare, while drinking beer and chasing blond girls. *burp*


And Serbia plans to enter the EU eventually, but they havent even officialy applied for membership yet. What I hear from the news, they arrested some 4000 suspicious types after the Djindic assassination and it looks like they are going to clean the whole country in one giant sweep

I admire that. Here in Croatia the government is too weak to deal with organized crime decisivly.


Then, Macedonia. They either have applied just few weeks ago or will apply very soon, I don't remember. They also would like to enter in 2007 since just about everybody is sure the next expansion is going to be who-knows-when, maybe during the reign of Bush III?

Their chances are a bit weaker then Croatia's (which are not themselves very good) so there is no saying when it will happen.

Bosnia, a true protectorate. Eventually, also in EU, but if EU takes only orderly, stable countries, we may see it happen right after Iraq and Iran get in. Needs a lot of work if not to become another northern ireland type of never ending tensions or violence.

[Sava]

I guess that means that Serbia gets in a decade after Turkey.

Considering all your knowledge of Serbia comes from Foxnews...

[ThePantaloonDog]

Arhm. Wrong. Croatia plans to 'catch the 2007 train' as it stated when officialy applying for membership recently. What are the chances of that actually happening I have no idea.

A Croatian friend of mine was debating whether Croatia should join Slovenia it a new Yugoslovia just so Croatia could be in the EU.

I told him that after the last one maybe you guys should just forget about the whole Slavic brotherhood thing.

I'd be interested in seeing how the whole Cyprus thing works out though.

[yago]

I am very happy to be embedded in a superpower.

Let Europe Arise.

[Spiffor]

Thanks for the info Vetlegion. I had expected the end of the Milosevic era would open hope for former Yugoslavian countries to enter the EU, but I didn't know it was official already. My sources date back to last year (courses on European enlargement), so these countries didn't even apply at that time.

I(m glad to see former Yugoslavians want to be part of the EU. I would be very happy when they'll enter, meaning these countries will be stable enough, and will profit from massive investment

[axi]

Hail, from the other side of the fence!

The 25 leaders who participated in the festivities did so in the inside of one of the strictest "red zones" ever imposed. In a mobilisation much bigger than that of Genova, the Greek police used 20.000 cops to totally block out about half the downtown (plus major arteries to and from the airport). Note that Athens is a metropolis of 5.000.000 people. The chaos that ensued was unparralelled, not just because of the traffic mess, but also because many thousands of people had decided to demonstrate.

The demontrations were both against the US and UK occupation of Iraq and against the EU itself. The EU which hypocritically poses as the "force of peace" while half of it's members support the agression and which would do even worse things, if it had the same power and interests that the US has.

The demonstrators converged in the Syntagma square, in front of the parliament. There, there was a clash with the riot police just outside the red zone in two fronts: In the upper side of the square students and people from the radical left tried to break the police cordon and were pushed back with heavy use of chemicals. I was in that block, carrying one of the three poles of a banner somewhere in the middle of the block, about 30m from the front. The police used some really nasty stuff on us and we retreated almost immediately. We made an orderly retreat, yet all the people in front of me came stumbling through our lines and I found myself right at the front when we regrouped. We decided not to have another go at the police cordon and left.

Meanwhile, in the lower side of the square, anarchists attacked the police from a distance with stones and petrol bombs and then were chased away, while many of them were cornered and arrested (there were totally 107 arrests, but there were several bystanders arrested as well - including a Chinese tourist! - and only 80 of them will be prosecuted).

After these events, demonstrators from all blocks marched alongside the red zone, in front of the french, italian and british embassies, the headquarters of the European Comission and finally the US Embassy. There were viloent outbreaks all the way and the use of chemicals by the police was constant. The number of undercover security agents around the demo was awesome and many of them were identified and beaten up by the crowd.

All in all, the attendance of the demos was dissappointing: all blocks added together had about 10.000-15.000 people (there was another demo set for the afternoon, organised by the Communist Party, but I didn't attend and I have no information). This can be explained by the fact that the majority in Greece is emphatically anti-american but pro-EU (something like paiktis and MarkG), and most have high expectations about Cyprus joining the EU as a means to secure the island from turkish agression, so most people outside the left would not demonstrate against the summit. Add to this the desperation over the quick victory of the Americans in Iraq (which will mean an increase in imperialist agression) and the scare tactics of the govt and police forces (the heavy use of chemicals and the brutality against arrested demonstators in most demos this year) and the contrast between yesterday's crowd and the 200.000 of earlier anti-war demos can be explained.

The map below denotes the "red zone".

[Combat Ingrid]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Actually I want it to happen as soon as possible because I want to move to scandinavia and live off the welfare, while drinking beer and chasing blond girls. *burp*

Reminds me of the typical Swedish nationalist rant:
"They come over here and take all our girls! "



Well, you're very welcome to come here and explore the Swedish beers, some of them are very good

[Bereta_Eder]

It will be interesting to see all those countries inside the EU.


I assume it is a positive development.

I'm equally interested in the new constitution of the EU too.