Eurosceptics in Eastern Europe” “” “

In February an opinion poll conducted by the “Polibarometer” statistics agency in Ljubljana revealed that less than half the Republic’s citizens are favourable to Slovenia’s entry into the EU. More precisely, only 48,6% of the electors would vote yes in the referendum and those who believe that membership would actually be useful are still less: only 43.8%. Compared with the poll results in January, a collapse of over 12 percentage points was registered. It’s the first time that the “Euroenthusiasts” have become the minority since 1991, i.e. when the Republic chose the path of independence with the slogan of “Europe now”. So Slovenia too has aligned itself with all the other candidate countries of Eastern Europe that will be the first to become effective members of the EU. The same trend can be seen in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, where survey polls have long revealed that the “Eurosceptics” are in the majority, and their numbers are growing from month to month. This is despite the fact that their governments are banking all their fortunes on entry into the club in Brussels. There is a real risk, therefore, that the enlargement of the Union to Eastern Europe will be embarrassingly rejected by the populations concerned in the various referendums called to endorse it. Why this brusque change in direction in public opinion after over a decade of struggles and sacrifices to adjust the systems of these countries to EU standards? In the first place, as the negotiations on the various chapters of membership are successively closed, the fear is growing of being considered second-class Europeans, with the same duties as Western Europeans but with decidedly watered-down rights. For example, many don’t understand why the free circulation of workers should be put on the back burner, and why Slovene, Hungarian, Slovak, Czech and Polish citizens should consequently be treated on a par with “non-EU nationals” for no less than seven years after the entry of their respective countries into the EU. Right from the start, on the other hand, these countries will have to adjust to the regime of the common agricultural policy with significant negative repercussions on their economies. Nor would the frontiers even disappear, because still further years of negotiation would be needed for these countries to achieve membership of the so-called “Schengen area”. Lastly, the fear is growing of being governed by bureaucrats that leave little scope for the politicians elected by the people. In short, the enlargement of the European Union is being increasingly perceived in Eastern Europe as a kind of economic, social and cultural colonization. Not as the construction of new rooms of the common European house, but as an invasion. So – and this the conviction that is constantly growing in public opinion – the game is not worth the candle and it’s better to leave things as they are. Is it the end of a dream? Will the peoples of Eastern Europe, after having fought for their independence and for full membership of Europe, now exclude themselves from it? Will it prove impossible for the two great lungs of the old continent, the Latin and the Slav, to breath in unison? The Pope too, the paladin of a Europe united from the Atlantic to the Urals, is worried by the situation of stalemate that is now being registered. This was testified in the address he recently gave to the participants in the third international Forum promoted by the “Alcide De Gasperi” Foundation. He pointed out the importance of the contribution made by “the Slav peoples to the culture of the continent” and asked the leaders of the EU to support the desire for membership of the countries of central and eastern Europe, and to “show comprehension in the initial phase as regards their adjustment to the economic conditions prescribed”. What is at stake here is too important to be thwarted by interests of economic or political nature. Far more important are the cultural and spiritual dimensions, so that Europe, as John Paul II declared, “may preserve her Christian heritage and enable it to bear fruit”: it is a heritage, he said, that “has made her great in the past and still today arouses the admiration of other peoples”. It is an appeal which should be heeded, both in Western and in Eastern Europe.