Topical News Lessons

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‘Old’ Europe reuniting East with West
Level 1 | 
Elementary
2
T
he crisis in Iraq has created
problems for many countries but
now it could also have a negative
effect on the European Union and, i n
particular on the plans to welcome the
Eastern European countries into the EU
in 2004. Jacques Chira c , the Fr e n c h
p r e s i d e n t , criticised the Eastern
European countries last week for their
support for George Bush’s policy on
I ra q .
At the end of the EU summit on Iraq in
B r u s s e l s, C h i rac said their behaviour wa s
"childish" and "dangerous". Po l a n d ,
H u n g a r y, the Czech Republic and the
other EU candidates should keep quiet,
he said. "When you are in the family,
after all, you have more rights than
when you are asking to join the family,
and you are knocking on the door. "
Romania and Bulgaria were particularly
c a r e l e s s, he said, because they were still
applying to join the EU.
This was a strong wa r n i n g . France has
never really liked the plans to enlarge
the EU because it sees the enlargement
as a British plan to change the chara c t e r
of the EU. It will be more difficult for
French farmers when Polish farmers are
in the EU. French has been replaced by
English as the main language of the
European Union. A n d , worst of all, t h e
post-communist governments in
Wa r s a w, P ra g u e, B u d a p e s t , the Baltics,
Slovenia and Slovakia are mostly pro-
A m e r i c a n .
Last month Chirac was very angry when
Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence
s e c r e t a r y, criticised France and Germany
as "old Europe" in contrast to the
friendly countries of "new Europe". Th e
pro-American open letter of five current
EU members and three of the new
candidates was another example of the
division between "old" and "new"
E u r o p e. .
France is not the only country that has
criticised the Eastern European
c o u n t r i e s. Germany says that it is
wrong for these countries to accept
money from the EU and then support
the A m e r i c a n s. Romano Prodi, t h e
president of the European Commission,
said he was "very, very disappointed"
by the position of the future member
s t a t e s. C h i rac even said there might be
a referendum in France on the question
of the enlargement of the European
U n i o n .
The European Union summit in
Copenhagen last December made the
final decision on enlargement. The treaty
for the 10 new members, which include
Po l a n d ,S l o va k i a , Malta and Estonia, w i l l
be signed in Athens in A p r i l . They should
join the EU on May 1st 2004.
The Eastern European countries replied
carefully to the criticism. B r o n i s l a w
G e r e m e k , the former Polish foreign
m i n i s t e r, said that France and Germany
had not consulted the other current EU
member states over the crisis in Ira q .
Some people recognised that this wa s
not really an attack on the Eastern
European countries. "Every time I have
an argument with my wife I shout at my
s o n s," explained Romania's prime
m i n i s t e r, Adrian Nastase. France has a
problem with the US and Britain but it is
easier to criticise the Eastern European
c o u n t r i e s.