Eighteen months after eight ex-communist countries joined the EU, eastern Europe's march towards stable liberal democracy is slower than even Eurosceptics expected. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets of Hungary, nationalists are in power in Poland and Slovakia, and the Czech Republic has got used to having no government at all. What's more, though billions of euros in subsidies are destined for the former Soviet satellites, the EU is getting a lot of flak. The Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, is a noted Eurosceptic, as is Poland's far-right populist deputy prime minister, Andrzej Lepper. Even in Hungary, where approval of the EU remains high, there are growing signs of scepticism. Its prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány, was famously caught admitting lying "morning, noon and night," about the country's dire economic predicament. But EU rules for curbing its spiralling budget deficit have now come under fire in Hungary. When the EU monetary affairs commissioner Joaquín Almunia commented on the Hungarian deficit reduction plan, the opposition leader and ex-premier, Viktor Orbán, challenged him pointedly to come and live on Hungarian wages.
With the exception of Britain, Ireland and Sweden, EU countries are also blamed for failing to open their labour markets. Many Poles see this as particularly unfair, given that their post-communist governments opened up to allow EU companies to buy huge chunks of the Polish economy.
Structural funds and farm subsidies are beginning to make their presence felt, particularly in Poland, but public support for the EU is brittle. In the meantime, Brussels may have to get used to dealing with mavericks and populists who know little about the inner workings of the EU and care less. Budapest's European policy is paralysed by a feud between officials working for the prime minister and those working for the foreign minister; meanwhile the Czechs have spent weeks in a governmental no man's land. One diplomat bemoans the insularity of the twin brothers who occupy the posts of prime minister and president of Poland. As if to highlight the point, the prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczy´nski, recently suggested the creation of an EU army tied to Nato. Anything called an "EU army" is a non-starter for London and any European force subordinated to Nato is anathema to Paris. The Polish plan therefore achieved the rare feat of riling the EU's two biggest military powers in one go.
Latest on the new constitution
When it was first mooted, the idea of a declaration to celebrate the EU's 50th birthday sounded so harmless that critics simply made fun of it. Now the document, due to be signed in Berlin next spring, is assuming importance in the struggle to resurrect the European constitution. Rejected by French and Dutch voters last year, the constitution is in the deep freeze, but Germany assumes the EU presidency in January 2007, and will take over the job of reviving the corpse. Current thinking is that the Berlin declaration could include many of the rhetorical elements of the preamble to the constitution crafted by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president, as well as other declaratory flourishes. If these can be consigned to a statement from Berlin, the EU could then concentrate on reviving practical parts of the constitution, such as the creation of a European foreign minister, in a "mini-treaty." For France this is an elegant solution, since it needs any new constitutional settlement to look different to the old one that its voters binned. Nicolas Sarkozy is already making the idea of a mini-treaty an element of his campaign for president. That means that he could, if elected, claim a democratic mandate and avoid the inconvenience of holding a second referendum.
50 years old but not together
France's Europe minister, Catherine Colonna, is preoccupied with another element of next year's 50th birthday celebration: its logo. Chosen through a competition, the winning design spells the word "together" in a series of different typefaces. In order not to upset the French, versions of the new motto are being made available in several languages ("ensemble" and so on). But in a letter to the commission president, Colonna—who rose to fame as a spin doctor for Jacques Chirac—complains that the logo is only available at present in English. Even translations are unsatisfactory, she says, arguing that the message of European unity will be undermined by having multilingual logos.
Nato at war with the EU
Nato may be at war with the Taliban in Afghanistan, but for many at the alliance's Brussels HQ the real enemy is closer to home—the EU. In theory, Nato works hand in hand with the Europeans, and ambassadors from the two organisations meet regularly. But though 19 countries are members of both, their gatherings have been wrecked by a long-running row over the release of confidential papers that Cyprus and Malta (which joined the EU in 2004) are not cleared to receive. So dysfunctional is the relationship that there is a fear that co-operation over Kosovo will fall victim to the feuding. As part of the discussions on Kosovo's final status, decisions need to be taken on the overlapping responsibilities of the UN, the EU and Nato. Such issues as the number of Nato troops that need to remain in the province ought to be decided at the regular meetings of Nato's North Atlantic council and the EU's political and security committee. But one Nato official describes the level of dialogue with the EU as "worse than that with Russia."
