Bulgaria in the EU

[cegorach]

"So what stood behind welcoming Spain, Portugal, Ireland or Greece ?" Same. Politic ixed-up with economy, increasing the market etc...
Don't get me wrng. I am in favour. EU is a political construction, not just a ecenomic zone as the English want it.

Actually that is almost exactly llike me.

Thanks for the explanation.

@gaelic cowboy

Originally Posted by cegorach View Post
Interesting. So what stood behind welcoming Spain, Portugal, Ireland or Greece ?

Spain and Portugal plus Britain and Ireland those four came in with there neighbour the economy of Ireland is heavily dependant on UK and I assume the same goes for Iberia. The political and economic consequences of dividing those four was probably not worth the effort plus they were all stable and small apart from Britain obviously so it was no effort to integrate.


Greece I have no clue really

Spain isn't so small. Anyway I get your point.

Interesting or perhaps just the usual, but before those four states joined the pre-EU tabloid press in France, Germany etc was warning about the 'imminent Iberic invasion'.

When I was in Ireland several years ago some people still recalled Portuguese workers who arrived, established bank accounts, took loans and took off 'forgetting' to pay them.

And now we have Bulgarian gangs emptying bank accounts using cloned credit cards in Poland.

I wonder who will be providing entertainment like this in a decade or two?

One thing is certain there will be always someone to blame.

@Sarmatian

EVERYBODY needs eastern Europe!

Several months ago there was a furious discussion in Poland if it is not the time to 'kill' Eastern Europe, but stories about supposed meltdown of 'eastern european' economies slowly vanished from western media so the discussion died from starvation.
Besides around that time Tusk and Sikorski started using (some say exploiting) support from other EE EU members to negotiate better conditions in climate deals or budget negotiations so the it wasn't all that useless as perviously predicted for a change.

I wonder how long will this term survive? After all it was established basically on the single fact of Soviet dominance and/or communism.

Kidding aside, entire Balkan economy makes about 10% of the German economy. It's insignificant for the EU. It's simply to small to affect EU economy in any way. On the other hand, being in EU is much better for those countries in the long run, for their stability and progress and so is better for the EU in the long run.

Maybe Bulgaria and Romania weren't 100% ready but it's a good thing they were accepted, for them and the EU.

Are you sure? Romania is no small country. Besides all this mess with latvia was simply enough to start this nonsense about 'crisis in the Eastern Europe' which angered Poland or Czech Republic so much.
When you join the EU term 'balcan states' might be used in a similar way - just because Montenegro sufferes doesn't mean that Serbia or Croatia does, yet some people will buy it.


P.S> Edward Lucas wrote pretty good piece about it in the latest the Economist

http://www.economist.com/world/europ...ry_id=15213108