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THE EU AND THE ENLARGEMENT EFFORT

Today, mainstream Europe is consolidated around NATO and the Common Market, where for the

first time in history an attempt was made to put centuries of war and political differences behind to

achieve a compromise in a range of aspects and separate views through common economic goals.

A concept that is unparalleled in its nobility as the past teaches us of settling disputes through

conflict and block divisions that have created numerous coalitions to counter the threat from the

opponent.

The First World War was one such result where old Europe divided along centuries of old alliances

and war partnerships, dragged the entire continent into a conflict the Old Lady has never recovered

from.

Europe’s failure to overcome the creation of several power centres inevitably participated in its

demise, as from this conflict Old Europe ended up a looser and it handed over the role of the Soviet

Union and America as the new world super powers.

The “Old Lady” came out of the war humiliated and Great Britain and France were no longer the

principal power brokers.

The rise of the New World particularly the emergence of the United States saw the coming of a new

era.

America became a global leader and the new dominant economic and military power.

For the first time in history traditional enemies stand side by side in an effort to create solid

economy that would be the main reason for stability.

The primary missions of the EU are redistribution of wealth, greater balance between rich/poor

divided regions and reduction of poverty by allocation of funds and resources to cash starved

deprived and underprivileged parts of Europe by further integration, all in an effort for the

unemployed to reach industrially developed labour markets.

Recently Europe saw a retro trend of reducing state borders, as entry in the EU means opening local

state borders to free movement of people in an attempt to reach free labour and commerce

markets.

However, this was not an easy trip through a gold paved road for anyone, as institutions such as the

League of Nations did not stand the test of time and failed in their principle objective and that was

to prevent future conflict.

Having said all this, the European Union today is faced perhaps with the biggest challenge of all, as

the enlargement and new member states are refused entry for exactly the same reasons Europe

made a decision to create the Common Market.

Somewhere along the way, the poorest and most underprivileged countries of Europe were left

behind as the EU refuses their entry for exactly the same reason.

 

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This way the EU became the VIP country club of the richest countries in Europe declining

enlargement to those who need it most.

Needless to say, this only creates a rich poor divide greater than ever before.

Not only that, even do the aim of the EU was to leave historic differences behind, the same reason is

used and enemies of the past have emerged as principal opponents in the entry of new member

states.

A day after the Republic of Macedonia declared its independence from the old SFR Yugoslavia; it was

presented with several demands and ultimatums by the Republic of Greece.

It has been almost twenty five years and the same issue is inertly dragged through the corridors of

power in Bruxelles, leaving a small post-communist country impoverished and deprived from entry

in the EU.

One of the biggest reasons why today in the Republic of Macedonia average unemployment is nearly

45% is indeed because this issue has influenced stability in the region and a small country is excluded

from economic integration and getting the financial assistance it needs.

Even do a cross country agreement was made that Greece would not use this dispute to compromise

its neighbour’s integration into the EU, nothing if further away from the truth.

One only has to go to local regional history to understand the nature of the dispute between the two

countries.

Since their arrival in the sixth century AD, Greece consolidated through the Byzantine Empire has

been the main opponent to Slav presence and activity in the Balkans.

Greek Nationalism has been one of the best documented through history.

The state funded xenophobia, the intolerance and nationalist sentiment could be viewed in every

aspect of contemporary Greek society.

Is Greece just pre-emptively preventive or just radicalized and extremist on mainstream level?

What out of this anti foreign sentiment is high street and what is just an isolated view of a handful of

Fascists?

How big is the “Golden Dawn” participation in contemporary Greek politics?

Almost fifteen hundred years later, issues of name and identity disputes have been introduced to

deny a whole nation the right to self-determination.

Initially introduced as the “Name issue”, Greek ability to veto any decision in the EU has been

presented in order to manipulate the integration of the Republic of Macedonia in European and

World institutions.

Even do the Republic of Macedonia actively participates in NATO peace keeping missions around the

world with more soldiers and active units than Greece as a full and permanent long term member,

 

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Macedonia’s membership into the alliance has been stalked through bureaucracy. 

This only creates more regional poverty and state borders have only been emphasised and

reinforced.

It seems that Europe does still not want to learn lessons from the past.

One could only have a look at present day news on local politics in the region, to see Greek’s official

racist and nationalist chauvinist foreign policy against all of its neighbours.

Only at a meeting in Tirana few days ago, when presented with the deteriorating human rights issue

of a small Albanian community from Aegean Macedonia along the Greco-Albanian border,

The now day Greek foreign minister Venizelos commented that he is totally unaware of a problem as

such because he honestly did not know that such minority in Albania existed.

Nothing to be closer to the truth, official Greece up to date refuses to accept the existence of Ethnic

minorities on its soil, and has been one of the oldest regional EU members.

I will only reiterate that Yugoslavia was among the first countries in Europe that implemented the

ideas that were a blueprint for the establishment of the European Union.

Yugoslavia with its freedom of confession, religious tolerance as well as its ideas borrowed from the

French Revolution from 1789 was a pioneering project that was rendered obsolete and useless with

infiltration of national extremist ideology.

The subsequent civil war destroyed this milestone of a social experiment that was indeed very

successful for several decades, before even a concept for the EU had been developed or perhaps

conceived.

Today, no one gives credit to what was achieved in Yugoslavia, and this wonderful coalition and

political alliance between people that could not be any more different.

Several different nationalities of a range of religious observance and warship, a multinational state

of several languages merged into a common market with a single currency providing a blueprint for

all the ideas introduced by the Common European Market decades after.

Federal Yugoslavia will remain a milestone in European and World history, an oasis of heaven

sandwiched between two extremely ideologically opposed political blocks.

Its pioneering politics just as well could astonish and mesmerise any scholar in modern as well

contemporary politics.

Some revolutionary ideas of social equality as well as more even distribution of wealth, assets and

resources were developed and introduced as well as implemented for quite a while.

Given the fact that democracy and social justice are based on a purely utopian and idealistic model,

Yugoslavia was the closest ever place on Earth to the Kingdom of Heaven, and the legacy will

hopefully be resurrected and we’ll all learn more from this great political project… 

 

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