EU enlargement was celebrated this week throughout the continent, but it remains to be seen if tensions over immigration and wealth sharing can be managed, writes Gamal Nkrumah Observing the celebrations marking the accession of 10 new member states to the European Union was an inspiring and heart-warming experience. Fireworks lit up the night across Europe as Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the EU anthem, resounded through the corridors of European power at the start of festivities. The official mood throughout Europe was euphoric. Austrian, Italian and Slovenian officials shook hands at Tromeja, their shared border Alpine pinnacle some 1,500 metres above sea level. And in Baltic Estonia, 20,000 volunteers planted a million trees. In Dublin's Phoenix Park, Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney read Beacons at Bealtaine, a poem written especially for the occasion, and the continent's leaders listened to the sweet strains of Irish piper Liam O'Flynn. There were not just handshakes at �ras an Uachtaràin, the Irish presidential residence, but genuine embraces. Irish President Mary McAleese, resplendent in a scarlet suit, gave every single European leader a reassuring pat on the back. Satisfied smiles and self-congratulatory cheers all round, the ceremony ended accompanied by the melodious sounds of the Irish harp. Ireland handled its day of welcome well, and there was glorious weather to boot. Ireland, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, stands as a model for the new EU member states. "From poverty we have created prosperity," Bertie Ahern the Irish prime minister, or Taoiseach, proudly declared. Not to be outdone, in Alexandria where "Egypt meets Europe", the Irish ambassador to Egypt Richard O'Brien presided over a similarly memorable celebration of the EU enlargement. O'Brien harked back to the days when Europeans were faced with the desolation of post-war Europe. "Their Europe was TS Eliot's Wasteland which -- when they embarked on their great adventure -- had little left beyond the relics of a shattered civilisation. Their Europe was a ravaged continent struggling to come to terms with the trauma of a world destroyed and divided by conflict." The Irish ambassador could have been speaking of present-day Iraq, Palestine or even Afghanistan. O'Brien evoked the memory of the Schumann Declaration, initiated by the then French Foreign Minister Robert Schumann who extended a hand to welcome the Federal Republic of Germany into the new Europe envisaged. And "thus was launched a vital partnership which has ever since been at the very heart of European reconciliation and integration," he recounted. The EU faces many challenges, admittedly only a few of these might prove insurmountable. Many of Europe's leading figures extolled the virtues of the union. "Poland's entry into the EU fulfils my dreams and lifetime work," said Lech Walesa leader of Solidarity, the independent trade union that ultimately forced the collapse of communism in Poland in 1989. Polish exports to EU countries are growing at a faster rate than those of any other of the EU's main trading partners, including China, Japan and the US. A new Europe is in the making. "Europeans are no longer kept apart by artificial ideological barriers," European Commission President Romano Prodi said. But the newcomers know what they are in for, and are certainly not blinded regarding prospects for the future. The European public at large was more doubtful, however, and that cynicism was reflected in the European press. Some publications had rather schizophrenic views on the matter, however. "This is a grand day for Poland. The crowning of 15 years of efforts, arguments, negotiations and discussions. The day marking the return to the country's proper place in Europe and the world," declared Poland's Rzeczpospolita, while another heading in the same paper warned Polish citizens, "Don't hold your breath: many EU accession benefits won't be felt for years." Some Baltic papers adopted a slightly more upbeat tone. "There won't be any miracles, but there will be opportunities we should be able to grasp," noted Latvia's Russian-language daily Chas. But the exaggerated exuberance of others bordered on the farcical. "Hurrah! Hungary has never been so secure externally, so free internally and has never had such a huge opportunity for progress than with this accession," blasted Hungary's Nepszabadsag. The paper went on to explain that Hungary had come a long way. "From the backward, straggling and exposed periphery we have reached the threshold of a centre promoting equal rights and progress." Early reactions from outside Europe were muted. "From a Japanese perspective, attempting to get 25 countries to share the same constitution is a mind-boggling aspiration," commented Asahi Shimbun. But the Japanese paper rightly pointed out that, "European integration has a history of advancing step by step, surmounting internal strife." Japan, and the rest of the world, took stock of the European experiment. "How will Europe face the US and Asia in the days ahead? Japan, which is grappling for an answer to this question, should take a closer look at the European experiment," the influential Japanese daily recommended. But the Europeans generally understood the significance of May Day 2004 differently. "Europe is emerging from the long shadows cast by Hitler and Stalin," is how Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine summed it up. The Baltic states were among the most enthusiastic applicants entering the European fold. "The former Communist Baltic states see enlargement as yet another opportunity to rid themselves of their bitter past and to link their fate with that of Western Europe for good, because they have always perceived themselves as part of it," is how Lithuania's Kauno Diena put it. But a shared sense of European identity aside, the newcomers are a mixed bag. Poland has more people than all nine other new members combined. Luxembourg, with 350,000 inhabitants, will remain the EU's smallest state, but the Mediterranean island-nations of Malta and Cyprus are not too far behind. Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia are poorer and have more economic headaches than the other newcomers. In the 1980s, there was a determined effort by the Germans and some of the other richer nations in Europe to prop up the economies of the less developed southern European countries like Greece, Portugal and Spain, but the wealthier Western Europeans will not be footing the same bill this time round. Europe might now be bigger, but it is not necessarily more confident. The EU now has a gross domestic product greater than that of the US. The EU's population has now risen to 455 million, but it still lacks a common defence or foreign policy. The eight former Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries are among Europe's staunchest pro-American nations. Indeed, the eight eastern and central European states are far more enthusiastic about joining NATO than being EU member states. One measure of distrust among the newly enlarged EU has to do with the fact that 13 of the 15 old EU states have firmly shut their doors in the face of workers from new members for up to seven years. Britain and Ireland are the only two nations that kept their doors open to welcome workers from the East. Mass migration from the eight central and eastern European newcomers is dreaded by the Germans, the Dutch and the Austrians, among others. "Just a few years ago, Czechs believed that on joining the EU they would become fully-fledged Europeans. Now it is obvious that it was just an illusion," lamented the Czech daily Lidove Noviny. "Czechs will feel like second class Europeans much more than they used to," the paper stressed. The political consequences of enlargement are yet to be seen. All EU member states have been given a two-year deadline to ratify the proposed EU constitution or withdraw from the union. Sedulous bickering about the draft EU constitution will continue to dog European nations. But other contentious issues abound. The EU's exacting health standards, for example, will curtail the importation of East European meat and dairy products. The big dairy business of Eastern Europe will also be negatively impacted by the EU's milk quotas. Farm productivity among the newcomers remains low by Western European standards. But the new members enjoy lower labour costs and higher economic growth rates than the old-timers. Language is no problem, apparently, in Europe. Europe's undisputed lingua franca is English, but some 1,500 translators are expected to be recruited in the next couple of months to assist in the dissemination of information in the EU's 20 official languages. "It is difficult to know whether to laugh or cry," wrote Quentin Peel in Britain's Financial Times. "But just this once let us laugh. After all, May Day marks a new beginning." Indeed, 2004 will go down as a major landmark of European history, just like 1945 and 1989. A great deal now hinges on where Europe goes from here. Many developing countries fear the ripple effects of enlargement. These fears were summed up by Dick Oosting of Amnesty International as follows: "There is a danger that a post-enlargement European Union will turn in on itself, distracted by political gridlock, economic uncertainty and domestic priorities; anti-poverty efforts and human rights risk becoming marginalised in the current political climate." All one can do is wait and see.
