Vive la Union!

[fivemack]

The EU takes on its ten new members on 1 May. I didn't get to Berlin when the Wall came down (I was twelve at the time, and besides it was in the middle of term); it would be kind of nice to be in Wenceslas Square when one of the more obvious and hopeful side-effects of the Wall's fall finally resolves itself after fourteen and a half years. At least, I hope the place will be full of celebrating Czechs.

And, though it's a bank holiday, Easyjet haven't put their fares up too far yet.

So, Prague or Ploktacon? Or would Poland or 'Pest be a better place for the celebrations? I've googled a little for celebrations, but no success — they may be targetted towards Hungarians and therefore in Magyar.

Comments

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

That's a "were kittens to grow on trees ..." kind of an argument; yes, the EU has trade barriers - so does the US, so does any super-state. Wherever you have democracies with farmers in, the farming lobby grows strong, and trade barriers are the easiest concession to make to them.

But given that the EU has trade barriers, it's remarkably clear which side of the barriers Jan Czech wants to be on; and, if you're to argue for the noisome evil of the EU in all things, it's hard to explain away why they're letting the Eastern European nations in to their exclusionist super-state so quickly.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

if you're to argue for the noisome evil of the EU in all things, it's hard to explain away why they're letting the Eastern European nations in to their exclusionist super-state so quickly.

Geopolitics, largely - the Eastern European states will be part of a power block, and with the demise of the USSR, the choices are pretty much the EU or the USA. Offering them economic advantages is meant to buy them, and fulfils the dream of plenty of European statesmen of 'reuniting' Europe. Many European politicians are deeply resentful of the fact that the USA has a smaller population, but is punching much higher than its weight in world affairs (which in a sense is fair enough I suppose, I just don't especially want to be part of an anti-American superpower). Of course it might all go wrong for them, given the number of central European states that were happy to line up with the US over Iraq.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Gah, imbecile que je suis, that "Poland" ought to have read "Portugal". The Czech Republic has 50% more GDP per head than Poland.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Dispute your figures a bit too, though I'm working from 2002, Eurostat gives Portugal at 71% of EU average, and Czech Republic at 62%. Which is more like, umm, 12% lower.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

You're probably right; I was using the CIA World Factbook on-line, which is lovely and comprehensive, but which does purchasing-power adjustments by an opaque process probably not involving hamburgers.

They reckoned Portugal's GDP-per-capita was $19.4k and the Czech Republic $15.3k, which does give 20%

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Yeah well, the way the Dollar and the Euro have been behaving since the Euro came into being, anything's possible.