Guess what - "New Europe" is in Europe after all...
On the day that Bush is set to arrive in Brussels to "mend relations" with Europe, the Financial Times has a full page article (behind subscription wall - this will be in tomorrow morning's paper) on how the integration of "New Europe" into the EU is proceeding.
The conclusion: You can forget about Poland, all right.
Contrast the two:
BBC
A huge security operation is being put in place for Mr Bush's five-day trip.
Some 2,500 Belgian police and 250 US secret agents are being deployed in Brussels.
Parts of the Belgian capital had been turned into a no-go zone before Mr Bush's plane landed in the city airport just after 2100 (2000 GMT).
(...)
Thousands of protesters are expected to stage rallies during Mr Bush's first foreign tour since his second term in office began in January.
Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators rallied in central Brussels, carrying slogans "Bush is not welcome".
from the FT (emphasis mine):
Most of [Czech president] Klaus's fellow leaders are far more comfortable about the club they joined last May, with good reason: membership is turning out better for eastern Europe than supporters of accession dared hope.
Citizens of eastern Europe, too, appear in the main to share their leaders' satisfaction. The EU-sponsored Eurobarometer opinion poll shows that, across the EU, overall support for union membership rose 8 percentage points to 56 per cent between April and October last year - the biggest increase since 1995. Not only have the economic benefits started flowing faster than expected, but the political advantages of membership have also become much clearer.
(...)
US President George W. Bush, who is to meet Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, in Bratislava, the Slovakian capital, on Thursday, is likely to hear from his central European hosts that the Ukrainian crisis has shown them that their position in the world is enhanced by closer co-operation within the EU. In Poland, the largest new member state, Jacek Cichocki, director of the Centre for Eastern Studies, a government-funded think-tank, says: "Recent events have shown that our ability to act in the world depends on the depth and strength of our base in the EU."
(...)
accession has been accompanied by a surge in economic growth. The ex-communist EU members saw gross domestic product rise 5 per cent last year, up from 3.7 per cent in 2004. The World Bank forecasts an increase of 4.5 per cent in 2005 - more than twice the growth rate of the "old" EU.
Exports rose by about 20 per cent (...). In agriculture, where producers feared they might be swamped by west European imports, exports to the west soared.
Towards the end of 2004, farmers also saw the first tranche of EU agricultural aid coming into their pockets - a minimum of 500 ($653) for the smallest producers. The European Commission estimates farmers' incomes rose by 50 per cent in new member states last year, with a 108 per cent rise in the Czech Republic and 73 per cent in Poland - by far the largest increases since the collapse of Communism.
Enlargement stimulated a wave of inward foreign investment, notably of portfolio capital. Stock markets across the region soared, headed by Slovak equities, which jumped 84 per cent.
(...)
the Ukrainian crisis was a lesson in the EU's political clout, as national leaders from the newly expanded club persuaded Mr Kuchma's side to accept defeat. Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski and Valdas Adamkus, his Lithuanian counterpart, worked with Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, to secure that outcome. But Polish and Lithuanian officials are the first to acknowledge that their presidents' influence was based primarily on their roles not as local national leaders but as representatives of the whole EU.
(...)
The best defence [against interference and instability from Russia] is closer integration with the EU, including on foreign policy and security issues, central Europeans are concluding. Officials say Nato, as a military alliance with an increasingly global responsibility, may be less useful than the EU in confronting non-military threats in Europe. That could imply less reliance on the US as a security partner and more on EU states - even in Poland, often seen as Washington's strongest central European ally.
Polish officials consider the country received little in return for its support of America in the Iraq war. Warsaw is to bring its peacekeeping unit home from Iraq this year. Marcin Zaborowski, a Polish foreign policy expert, recently published a paper for the EU's Institute for Security Studies, arguing that "Poland's Atlanticism is likely to be toned down in future".
(...)
Ultimately, east Europeans will judge the success or failure of EU membership largely by its impact on their pockets. (...) the first few months of membership have done more to emphasise the advantages than the disadvantages of the union.
So, to eastern Europe, the EU is bringing:
- increased prosperity, through trade, investment and financial help;
- increased clout on the security issues that really worry them, essentially in dealing with Russia;
- actual results.
Meanwhile, the US is providing:
- unpleasant headlines when soldiers die in a senseles war in Iraq;
- unnecessary tensions with their everyday partners in the EU (Old Europe);
- worriying cosiness with the big bully in the backyard, Putin's Russia;
- empty promises.
You can forget about Poland, all right.