Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: L'Europa e l'allargamento

Tanto per cambiare soggetto, questo mi sembra abbastanza interessante.
Specie adesso che siamo a Novembre e con il prossimo social forum di
Firenze ci troveremo ancora a parlare di multinazionali, agricoltura
OGM e quant'altro, senza tralasciare coloro che si affannano a cercare
nell'Europa una via alternativa al neoliberismo imperante!
ciao
By Angus Roxburgh 
BBC News Online, Brussels  
 
 
The European Commission said "yes" last week to 10 countries which
wish to join the EU in 2004.
But a treacherous path still lies ahead between now and the Copenhagen
summit in December at which leaders of the 15 current members will
take the final decision.
 
The first obstacle is this week's referendum in Ireland on the Nice
Treaty, but even if the Irish say "yes", many more hurdles have to be
overcome - both in negotiations among the existing 15 and in talks
between them and the 10 applicants.
And most of the hard talking will be about money - how much present
members are willing to pay, and how little the new ones are prepared
to accept.
The 15 are supposed to sort out a common negotiating position at a
summit in Brussels towards the end of October.
Until last month's general election in Germany, work on this was
stalled, and now it has to be done in a hurry.
But there is still no common view on, for example, whether farm
subsidies can be extended to the new members under the current
extravagant system, or whether the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
should be reformed first.
 
Countries like Germany and Holland do not want to commit themselves to
providing further huge handouts without at least the promise of
reform, but France and other CAP beneficiaries are holding out against
change.
Now there is a further complication with the Dutch Government in
limbo.
It collapsed on Wednesday over disputes about EU enlargement, amongst
other matters, with the Dutch finance minister rejecting the
commission's assessment that all the applicants - including Poland -
were ready to join.
Many of the new members, though among the poorest in Europe, would
theoretically end up net contributors to the EU budget in the first
years
Over the past few years, almost all the "chapters" of the accession
negotiations have been closed - but they were all on the relatively
easy subjects.
The key ones remain agricultural subsidies and regional aid.
The commission proposes initially giving farmers in the new countries
just 25% of the direct aid available in the existing countries, rising
to 100% only in 2013. Not surprisingly the applicants are up in arms
about this.
Regional aid - the so-called cohesion and structural funds - are also
to be capped at half the level paid to existing members.
Moreover, it would take a year or so before funding for any projects
became available.
The bizarre result of this is that many of the new members, though
among the poorest in Europe, would theoretically end up net
contributors to the EU budget in the first years - that is, they would
pay in more than they would get out as subsidies.
Since the applicants currently receive considerable pre-accession aid
(without making any contributions), they would suddenly find
themselves considerably worse off as a result of joining.
The commission and the existing 15 understand, of course, that such a
situation would be political suicide. It would certainly spark
protests in the new members - if, that is, they could even be
persuaded to vote for entry under such unfair conditions.
So the other big task of the Brussels summit will be to work out
compensation for the new members to tide them through the initial
period.
The coming two and a half months will be a testing time for the EU and
its Danish presidency.
Enthusiasm for the project is already fragile in several applicant
countries.
Unless solutions to these thorny problems are found quickly and
positively, it could wane even further, leaving the intended
beneficiaries of Europe's great leap to unity out in the cold.

Mi sembra che l'euro come primo effetto ha accresciuto l'inflazione, poichč
almeno in Italia credo che ogni commerciante al dettaglio e ogni negoziante
abbia fatto il suo bravo arrotondamento per eccesso dei prezzi. Ma ora come
tutte le buone scelte sembra che stia finalmente cominciando a dare i suoi
frutti. Infatti credo che sia proprio dovuto alla moneta unica se i vertici
europei, finiscono sempre piů spesso con dei buoni risultati. Che i politici
europei stiano iniziando a capire che vivere in famiglia richiede a volte di
fare dei passi indietro, altre volte di fare dei passi in avanti?
Ciao Luca.
My homepage, 
http://www.themanfuture.it