Forum for European Journalism Students - intro
Три дня назад прилетел в Нидерланды на ежегодный форум журналистов-студентов - FEJS. Одним из условий участия являлось написание эссе: либо об истории Европейского Союза, либо о его грядущем расширении. Аккурат в день прибытия пришла весть, что мой вариант - рассуждения о расширении Евросоюза - вошёл в топ-10 отмеченных британским блог-порталом cafebabel.com.
Рассуждения (разумеется, на английском) - под катом.
EU Enlargement 2013 - who the heck cares?
More than 4 decades ago John Lennon said to the world: “Imagine there is no countries, it isn’t hard to do…” - talking about geopolitical situation in modern Europe we can see that his words are not a total utopia: the European Union has come a long way - following sequential steps of development since 1950es, it is nowadays associated not with a bunch of different countries but treated like an independent community inside its borders. This year the EU is going to add Croatia to its list of 27. Which new features will it bring to contemporary Europe - and will it?..
Being a member of EU has its benefits. Transparency of internal borders is the easiest to notice. Even when my friends from other continents say “Europe”, they mean the whole set of member states - though their words in fact may be devoted just to one or two countries. Wouldn’t it be nice to spend weeks travelling across several regions without thinking about visa formalities and absorbing the variety of cultural phenomena - from masterpieces designed by Gaudi in Spain to Polish folk dances, from Queen's Day holiday in the Netherlands to marvellous Finnish lake landscapes? What a chance for artists, journalists or photographers!
One more benefit is inner ambitions for self-development in order to catch up with other member states. Let’s take a young person sending their documents to a respectable university - and getting a positive answer and a scholarship to study there - the desire not to fall behind is a trigger for them to work hard, to get more knowledge. The same principle could work out with countries which are about to join a coalition or a union - though the reality doesn’t always follow it.
However, for those scientific-minded guys who tend to analyse the future and make predictions, broadening the community is a matter of care (here is what Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics winner, says). Giving different countries equal rights and opportunities doesn’t mean they will develop further equally - as there are plenty of factors influencing the way of development: their basic conditions, for instance (saying “basic” meaning “economic and political mostly”).
In a typical family it is a father who brings home the bacon while mother is at home with kids. After some time both parents work while their children are at school - but when the latter have grown up, they will inevitably have to contribute to the family budget - not to be parasitic. It’s natural to help your offspring being in trouble - but any father would not appreciate it when the person, who has put the chestnuts in the fire, gets off the hook.
The same rule is fair for global (as well as regional) economy. Some of EU members have been experiencing harsh economic situation for the past months - Cyprus or Greece are on everyone’s lips. Bail-out does help to stabilize the atmosphere for a short-term; but the bigger the economic danger is, the more the opportunity is for the question heard from others - “Should we pay more taxes for the sake of saving economy which has been misled and is a heavy load to bear?” to arise.
To put it in a nutshell, the challenge - how to increase the pros of expanding and totally eliminate the contras at the same time - hardly has a solution that suits everyone. The core thing is to promote positive features and possible effects so that every citizen knew how to use them - and never play with fire of hollow promises.