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Wednesday, October 13, 2004

EU - To Be Or Not To Be?

Everyone is in a rush these days to meet this and that criteria in order to join the EU. Granted, having what we need to join EU would be a good thing, but what about simply making it look like that and joining unprepared? It ought to be pretty obvious for anyone here that Romania will not *actually* meet any of the important criteria anytime soon: corruption will not disappear, justice will not simply start working fine, the power will not simply stop the fiscal financing that keeps much of the media alive and working for them and surely no functional market economy will pop out of nowhere and settle here.
So let's think for a moment if all this is worth it. Disguising reality can be dangerous in this case and joining EU in our current condition could generate, besides a lot of controversy and scandals, a small economic disaster here, as local the local industry (e.g. manufacturing) is very inefficient and may simply be swept away in the absence of customs tariffs.
But there could be a bright side to this: the actual ex-communist government would surely hate it. Oh, but really? (I almost heard you ask.) Yes, really, because it would mean the end of much of their lucrative governing business. And today, as I'm getting more and more tired of the above mentioned ex-communists, I feel a bit radical. I say let's do it. I can ignore all those laid off people with four children to feed. I can ignore the poor starving bastards caught in a game without chances. Why should I be so merciful when it was probably them who cast the votes which brought us where we are right now? Let's do it.

Posted by TM : 10/13/2004 10:01:00 am