Friday

29th Mar 2024

Europe celebrates historic day

  • Welcome to the EU - view from Copenhagen (Photo: EUobserver)

At midnight on 30 April, the European Union grew from 15 to 25 countries. Eight new member states from central and eastern Europe plus the two Mediterranean islands of Malta and Cyprus have joined the club in the biggest enlargement of the EU ever.

Today, to mark the historic occasion, Europe's papers take a look at the implications, good and bad, for the EU.

El Pais, Spain

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Fourteen long years after the fall of the Berlin wall, Dublin today marks a landmark of hope for Europe, with the integration of ten new members in the EU, eight of which remained behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.

It does not fit to talk about the reunification of the continent, because save some attempts marked by the jackboot not by free will of citizens, this Europe has never been united.

Diario de Noticias, Portugal

For the Portuguese it is easy to understand what the people of the new European partners are feeling … Remember when it acceded to the then European Economic Community, the ancestor of the EU, in 1986, Portugal also sought to anchor her expectations of stability after decades of fascist rule.

… For the ‘old’ and ‘new’ in this Union - created after the second world war - the basic objective remains - peace. without this all of the other projects - more or less achieved -would be impossible.

Le Nouvel Observateur, France

Twenty-five members of the European community. The third largest population bloc, the second largest economic bloc, and, yes, the largest trading entity on the planet. This Europe is the conclusion, for the first time in history, of a process that was both voluntary and peaceful.

Le Monde, France

At the moment of moving to 25 members, Europe is going forward like a headless chicken. Economic stagnation in the old members, difficulties in adapting for the new members, the calling into question of the European social model by globalisation, the need to affirm its identity in the face of the single American hyperpower ... all these problems need genuine leadership. [It remains to be seen] whether this role is taken by a few people or by a group of member states".

Le Figaro, France

If it is true that EU membership will open up a number of new opportunities, we must also be aware that we will be able to use them only if we develop the best of European qualities in us.

Corriere della Sera, Italy

Nobody is hiding the fact that the EU’s east expansion is a bit of a gamble in this historic phase.

Although some countries have been independent for only a few years and despite the economic disparities between almost all the new EU members and those already forming part of it, enlargement has been approved by the 15 and ratified last year by referendums in nine of the 10 acceding countries in which there were narrow "yes" majorities.

The Times of Malta, Malta

Malta wakes up today as a member of the European Union, joining nine other countries in an enlargement that is marking what is being considered as the most important event after its foundation.

It has been a long and sometimes difficult march but as the island takes its place in the 25-member European Union, a new era begins for this small country that had to go through so much before finally winning the right to determine its own affairs. It is through that right that the majority of the people chose to shape and share its future with that of the European family of nations.

Cyprus Mail, Cyprus

Regrettably, Greek Cypriots last Saturday did not seize the opportunity that would have allowed a re-unified Cyprus to join the Union, letting down the Turkish Cypriots and provoking the collective wrath of our new partners, who feel that we have cheated them.

The rejection of a settlement, followed by the barrage of criticism from the EU has cast a shadow over the weekend’s celebrations, from which the Turkish Cypriots will be absent.

FAZ, Germany

This is a great step, despite all the concerns and reservations. Europe is emerging from the long shadows cast by Hitler and Stalin.

It ranges from the reconciliation of arch enemies to the stabilisation of young democracies and the banishing of poverty from western Europe's former poor houses, says the newspaper outlining what enlargement means for Europe.

Süddeutsche, Germany

Welcome to the EU, says Germany’s left-leaning Süddeutsche. After two world wars and several decades of idealogical division, Europe has slipped closer together.

A Continent is celebrating: we’ll talk about the Constitution and the consequences after the hangover, it remarks wryly.

Irish Times, Ireland

For those of us born shortly after the second world war, who lived through four decades of Cold War, and who could reasonably expect to see only the development of a closer western European political union, today's enlargement of the European Union is a cause of profound thanksgiving, says an opinion piece in the Irish Times.

Reflecting on when Ireland first joined the EU in 1973 and how much it benefited from EU membership, another opinion piece states: Moreover - to an extent that none of us fully appreciated at the time - we were also to become the biggest single beneficiary of access to this huge market as we had a far greater potential to attract industrial investment from outside the community than any other state. That was, of course, the key to the Celtic Tiger of the 1990s.

De Volkskrant, Netherlands

The Dutch are not very happy with the enlargement of the EU. 40 percent do not regard this as a positive development, whereas 34% do. On the question of whether Poland, the Czech republic and Hungary "belong to us" as much as Germany, France and Belgium, a small majority answers negatively.

(Based on a survey conducted by De Volkskrant on 1096 Dutch people from 18 years and above)

NRC Handelsblad Netherlands

The scepticism about the necessity and benefits of enlargement can only be countered by day-to-day experience. The EU itself has given something to hold on to: who would have thought that Spain, Portugal and Greece - only some decades ago they where sad dictatorships - would develop so rapidly into relatively modern countries? Thanks to Europe. And to Europe's benefit.

De Standaard, Belgium

Just over 15 years after the end of the Cold War, the European Union will on Saturday morning, with its 451 million inhabitants, become the most important economic market in the world, after China. But politically, the Union has not come that far at all. A political union is far from being reached. As a world player, the EU will even be weakened by enlargement, because its internal divisions will only grow.

The Independent, UK

The trouble with historic moments is that they are too huge, too garlanded, to fit into the normal discourse of politics or the media. Today's enlargement of the European Union is such a moment. None of the present-day politics of constitutions and referendums should blind one to the sheer wondrous fact of the accession of the new members from the former Soviet bloc. Just as the original Common Market locked in a continent brutalised by two successive world wars in a new and peaceful partnership, so today's accessions cast the end of a half-a-century split between East and West.

Hufvudstadsbladet, Finland

Diversity as Europe’s hallmark has been consolidated. The European map has once again changed. But this time through the free will of the people, and not with sword or cannons.

Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden

History has made the new members more Atlantic orientated with implications for the EU’s relations to the US. History has also given them bigger feelings for the values of sovereignty with consequences for the hard core EU moving ahead in different policy areas. It also illustrates the new pattern of coalitions, which is awaited inside the EU, which will influence the competition between the European big powers. Germany (economy) and Great Britain (security) appear to be the winners, France as the loser.

Dagens Nyheter, Sweden

The Iron curtain that Winston Churchill saw lowering in 1946 from the Easter Sea to the Adriatic has now finally eroded. Europe is no longer a divided Continent and hopefully will never be again. Now a day’s Europeans live in a happy moment of Europe’s long, conflict-ridden history.

Politiken, Denmark

The Union has grown too big to take orders from the old French-German motor, or from any other combination of two or three leading countries. The future of the EU is dependent on whether a new balance is found in Europe, which is not like the cold war or the transition period between new and old - which is now ending. There is no shortage of signs of crises.

Ukraine slams grain trade restrictions at EU summit

Restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU could translate into military losses in their bid to stop Russia's war, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned EU leaders during their summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Difficult talks ahead on financing new EU defence spending

With the war in Ukraine showing no signs of ending any time soon, EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday (21 and 22 March) to discuss how to boost the defence capabilities of Ukraine and of the bloc itself.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

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