All is not well in the EU. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports in the Telegraph that the upcoming expansion may be A loveless marriage that could end in tears:
Neither the European Union nor the ex-communist states of Eastern Europe are remotely ready for a vast political, economic, military and judicial union stretching to the borders of Russia.Quite a hoedown, so what's the rub?
Nonetheless, Tony Blair and his fellow prime ministers are determined to go ahead with the historic gamble at the Copenhagen summit starting today.
Once the haggling over dairy quotas and suckling cows is finally over, probably in the small hours of Saturday, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Slovenia, as well as the islands of Malta and Cyprus, will be told that they can join the EU on May 1, 2004. They will bring their 73 million citizens into the union.
Romania and Bulgaria will be given a probable date of 2007, with Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia queueing behind.
But, privately, EU diplomats are not so sure that it will end well. Most of the candidate states are woefully ill-prepared for a union that now regulates the minutiae of employment and social policy, shares a common police agency, Europol, and has mutual legal recognition backed by a European arrest warrant.Such a deal!
The fine print in the European Commission's reports on the candidate countries shows that their court systems cannot begin to cope with the 180,000 pages of EU rules and regulations, making it almost certain that they will simply ignore much of the legislation that Britain assiduously enforces at home.
In the case of Poland, the commission said the government was in violation of EU rules on pollution, water control, food safety, fisheries and farming, and lacked the means to deliver EU subsidies. It said the country did not have "a political, administrative and business culture that can resist corruption".
Few of the states meet the entry criteria of a "functioning market economy" that can handle the "competitive pressure" of the single market. Yet all are on the fast-track to join the euro.
The EU itself has failed to take elementary steps required for expansion. It soldiers on with a decision-making apparatus designed half a century ago for limited tasks by a small core of six states.
The system is already nearing paralysis with 15 members.
Romano Prodi, the EC president, has said that it will grind to a halt with 25 or more members unless the national veto is removed and the commission is turned into a fully-fledged European government.
Meanwhile, also in the Telegraph is a report that Britain risks huge influx of east Europe migrants
Millions of workers from eastern Europe will be eligible to work and settle in Britain from the moment their countries join the EU in 18 months, the Government announced yesterday.Ah, the deal for the UK gets even better.
Britain is to waive its right under the accession treaty to delay extending full work opportunities to new members for up to seven years.
This could make it the main target for migrant workers, campaigners said last night, as Germany and other major economies were imposing restrictions on movements from the East.
