Europe

EU enlargement anniversary overshadowed by concerns about Russia

In a sign of the times around Europe, economic benefits of EU membership have yielded to more earnest discussions about security

May 1st 2004: Czech PM Vladimir Spidla, German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Polish PM Leszek Miller and EU enlargement commissioner Guenther Verheugen hoist the European flag, in the German town of Zittau marking the entrance of 10 countries into the European Union. Photograph: Dan Materna/AFP via Getty Images

Derek Scally in Berlin
Wed May 1 2024 - 20:01

From Tallinn to Valletta, celebrations to mark the EU’s largest enlargement wave 20 years ago were overshadowed by what-if security concerns about Russia.

On May 1st, 2004, after a ceremony in Dublin, the arrival of 10 new members — Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia — marked an increase in EU territory by one-fifth, redrawing the continent’s political geography after a turbulent 20th century.

Among the celebrations around Europe on Wednesday, foreign ministers from Germany and Poland met on the bridge over the Oder-Neisse line, one of postwar Europe’s most controversial and burdened borders. Part of postwar European territorial shifts, the natural border provided by the rivers Oder and Neisse became, 20 years ago, just another open crossing.

Leading the party, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and her Polish colleague Radoslaw Sikorski cheered the EU’s 2004 enlargement as a “magic moment” of European history.

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“At times like these we have to make clear that, for all our daily problems, this great union of freedom, this reunited Europe, protects us and makes us happier,” said Baerbock. She praised the “political farsightedness and responsibility” that had made the so-called “big bang unification” happen.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock praised the 'political far-sightedness and responsibility' that had made the so-called 'big bang unification' happen. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Joining them were two of the politicians responsible: Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz and Joschka Fischer, foreign ministers in 2004. Their handshake on the Polish-German bridge was about more than the EU: it ended centuries of on-off hostilities and completed a historic transformation of Europe that began with the 1980 worker strikes in the Gdansk shipyards.

For Fischer, German foreign minister for seven years until 2005, enlargement 20 years ago helped the EU reach its full potential “not just as a western European project but a pan-European project”.

“I cannot imagine an EU any more without Poland,” he added.

As a more pro-EU government in Warsaw works to repair relations with Brussels, eight years of anti-EU rhetoric and policy by the previous administration have left their mark on public opinion.

Support for the EU in Poland is, at 77 per cent, at its lowest level in more than a decade and 15 points lower than in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The new poll by Poland’s state CBOS agency shows EU support split along party lines: above 90 per cent for supporters of the ruling coalition and 64 per cent among voters of the more Eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party, now in opposition.

Some 59 per cent of respondents believe that Poland’s EU membership brings the country more benefits than drawbacks, while about one-fifth of respondents (21 per cent) think the opposite.

This comes as a series of reports for the anniversary flag Poland as among the enlargement’s greatest beneficiaries.

A Pekao bank study says Poland’s real GDP — economic output adjusted for price changes — doubled in the last two decades, more than any of the other new arrivals.

Its rapid transformation has catapulted Poland up the league tables to compete with newer and older member states, with the third-fastest economic growth in the EU in the last decade — just behind Malta and Ireland.

Rising prosperity is reflected, too, in Poland’s property market: in the first quarter, prices rose 13 per cent on the same period in 2023, compared to broadly flat market across the Continent.

In a sign of the times around Europe, however, the economic benefits of EU membership — previously front and centre in such anniversaries — have yielded to more earnest discussions about European security.

While many of the EU’s newest arrivals in 2004 were already Nato members, those with a history behind the Iron Curtain say there is no such thing as too much European security.

For Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas, EU accession 20 years ago remains a crucial part of her country’s insurance policy.

“Today’s security situation confirms that membership of the European Union ensures the survival of our country and helps us to protect our democracy,” she said.

With nine further candidate countries now seeking EU membership, six western Balkan countries have been offered partial access to the European single market in exchange for stepping-stone reforms to full membership.

With an eye on Russia, European Council president Charles Michel said on Monday it was in the EU’s interests to reach out to these countries or risk a “new Iron Curtain” along Europe’s eastern flank.

Derek Scally

Derek Scally

Derek Scally is an Irish Times journalist based in Berlin

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