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Fourth, the opening of the following thirty virgin territories and islands: Albania, Crete, Estonia, Finno-Karelia, Frisian Islands, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Rumania, White Russia, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Germany and Austria; Channel Islands, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Hebrides Islands, Malta, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the British Isles; Andorra, Azores, Balearic Islands, Lofoten Islands, Spitzbergen, Ukraine, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States of America; Liechtenstein, Monaco, Rhodes, San Marino, Sardinia, Sicily, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Italy and Switzerland.
With the exception of Slovenia, Estonia, Croatia and the Czech Republic the population of the countries in transition is poor, sometimes inordinately so. Looming and actual penury is a major driver of entrepreneurship, initiative and innovation. Wealth formation and profit seeking are motivated by indigence, both absolute and relative.
The Vilnius Ten including Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia called the evidence presented to the Security Council by Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State "compelling". Iraq posed a "clear and present danger" they concluded. Bulgaria and Romania pledged free access to their air spaces and territorial waters.
All of them already enjoy, to varying degrees, unfettered, largely duty-free, access to the EU. To belong, a few like Estonia would have to dismantle a much admired edifice of economic liberalism. Most of them would have to erect barriers to trade and the free movement of labor and capital where none existed.
Mild corporatism is rife and manifest in central wage bargaining. For some countries notably Estonia joining the EU would translate into a de-liberalized and re-regulated future. Others would find the EU's brand of the market a comfortable and dimly familiar middle ground between America's harsh prescriptions and communism's delusional model.
Almost two thirds of respondents in surveys conducted by the EU in Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia and Lithuania are undecided about EU membership or opposed to it altogether. The situation in the Czech Republic is not much different. Even in countries with a devout following of EU accession, such as Romania, backing for integration has declined this year.
In a thinly veiled threat, Fischler included this in a speech he made in a recent official visit to Estonia: "The EU enlargement countries should be pleased with the 25 per cent agriculture subsidies, as the member states have not agreed even on that yet, therefore this should be the first goal and only after that can further subsidies be discussed ... It would not be very wise to tell the EU member states that accession countries are not pleased, that would not be positive for the whole process."
Since the adjournment, further agreements have been entered into with Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Italy, and Rumania. These 11 nations, which have already made settlements, represent $6,419,528,641 of the original principal of the loans.
The situation hasn't been this dire since the toppling of communism in the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Ironically, these bad tidings are mostly the inevitable outcomes of much delayed reforms, notably privatization. Four fifths of the country's economy is alleged to be in private hands a rate similar to the free markets of Estonia, Slovakia and Hungary.
All of them already enjoy, to varying degrees, unfettered, largely duty-free, access to the EU. To belong, a few like Estonia would have to dismantle a much admired edifice of economic liberalism. Most of them would have to erect barriers to trade and the free movement of labor and capital where none existed.
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