MINI CASE: THE EUROPEAN UNION SANS FRONTIÈRE?

A European Union without borders? After accepting ten new members in 2004,
and another two in 2007,the EU is experiencing severe problems especially since the
beginning of the global credits crisis in 2008 and the related European sovereign debt
crisis of 2010.Some EU taxpayers wonder if proper vetting was done before so many
new members were admitted in haste. The massive bailout of the banking sector in
Ireland and Portugal followed by the painful restructuring of Greece’s sovereign debt
and chronic fiscal deficit problems has exposed the limits to which well-off EU members
are willing to rescue other EU countries. The total failure of the financial sector among
“star economic performers” of the recent past-the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain-
clearly exposed the weakness of the deregulated Anglo-American capitalism that was
practiced by some “market-oriented” member states. Public demand for tighter, more
effective regulation of the financial sector that is being debated for legislation in the
United States and Europe is evidence that taxpayers in the west are getting fed up with
a “so-called capitalist system” that privatizes profits and socializes risk.

The scenario asks many questions: (a) whether the EU has moved eastward too
fast and too soon:(b) whether EU is resorting to “ à la carte” membership that is
straining the management of the union;( c ) whether new members should be admitted
any time soon; and (d) whether there ought to be a demarcation-referring to countries
such as Turkey, Georgia, and Ukraine-beyond which the EU will not cross.

EU critics argue that just as the Soviets aggressively and forcefully took over
neighboring states to keep communism safe, the EU is accepting new members to its
fold-all the way to Russia’s borders-to keep Europe safe for democracy. In this process,
a number of countries have been (and are) in the course of being accepted into the EU
without adequate vetting. The Russians are concerned because a large number of EU
members are also members of NATO(the North Atlantic Treaty Organization),which has
policy stating that an attack on any one NATO member is an attack on all its members,
therefore, a military response. Russia is watching the proposed EU and NATO
membership of Georgia and Ukraine very closely because of this. While Russia may not
be very concerned about Georgia and Ukraine joining the EU, their membership in
NATO may not be acceptable. It may be in Russia’s interest to destabilize Georgia and
Ukraine if they joined NATO as Georgia witnessed in 2009.

Although the EU has some exemplary value-based goals that all member
countries must follow(the so-called Copenhagen criteria of adherence to democracy,
rule of law, rights of minorities, etc.),Critics argue that member countries appear to be
“cherry picking” aspects of EU goals they would like to follow. Hence, the EU essentially
practices differentiated regional integration. For example, the U.K., Denmark, and
Sweden have chosen to opt out of the euro after meeting euro-entry requirements. The
Schengen open border area (which dictates that one a person enters EU members
states without other country’s visas) extends to non-members such as Iceland, Norway,
and Switzerland; while EU members such as U.K and Ireland remain outside of this
agreement. The Lisbon Treaty exempts Britain and Poland from the Charter of
Fundamental Rights although they violated human rights by renditioning 9/11 terrorism
suspects to third countries in order to extract confessions through torture. A lack of
uniform enforcement of rule of law within the EU will only weaken the EU as monitoring
the various permutations and combinations of membership policies could turn into a
Brussels nightmare.
QUESTIONS:

1) Given the security concerns of both the EU and Russia, where should EU’s eastern
border end? Do you think the buffer states should become NATO members as well?
Why or Why not?

2) Should non-uniformity policies in the EU (i.e.,cherry picking EU policies that members

may choose to follow) be tolerated or encouraged? Make your case.