And not just in the speeches of presidents and prime ministers. Certainly, the US retains a powerful psychological hold over the minds of most people of the former communist world. For many, America remains paradise on earth. But it is seen as unattainable, except perhaps by emigration. Europe, by contrast, can be recreated at home, albeit with years of effort and with support from Brussels.
Political leaders differ in their support for the European ideal.
For Euro-enthusiasts such as Bronislaw Geremek, the former Polish foreign minister, closing the gap between east and west in Europe is an issue of recreating a unified European civilisation. Even Corneliu Vadim Tudor, the far-right nationalist leader in Romania, insists that he supports EU accession. The alternatives are bleak isolation as pursued by Serbia under former president Slobodan Milosevic, or integration with Russia, as espoused by Aleksander Lukashenko, president of Belarus. The balance of public opinion varies between countries. In some countries such as Poland, the largest accession state, an initial flush of enthusiasm for EU integration has given way to a more sober assessment of the gains and costs of accession.