(original from shortly after midnight Five years of European Union enlargement: A personal review )
I know exactly where I was five Years, to the 1st Mitternach May 2004, the moment when the European Union was extended by eight Central and Eastern European states and two countries from the Mediterranean.
I was in the eastern center of Berlin, at a public party to celebrate the expansion, and just before we counted down from 24 Clock 10, and at midnight a happy throngs of mostly young people welcomed our new "roommate".
It was a remarkable moment for Europe and the European Union, and I must admit, for me too.
As a relatively Francophile man my eyes and my heart was more on the west. But the extension this focus has changed, and I have used one of the first opportunities to visit a number of new Member States. And just nine months after the enlargement, I even pulled one of the new Member States.
This was the beginning of my second Europeanization, I when I was at that time quite convinced European. I have focused my eyes again, and I got to Europe as a broader concept to understand, perceive the real significance of this open space and the ideals of freedom and unity. I began to understand that Europe, and this particular union was not only the targets that you wanted, but that this is only the basis for the achievement of other goals.
Since the enlargement, I've shared houses and flats and (new) friends with Bulgarians, Germans, Ukrainians, Finns, Hungary, Spain, Estonia, Moldova, Austrians, Serbs, Russians (random order), I have good relationships with many other European citizens built up, and I think I managed to talk about the last five years with at least one person from almost every country of this continent.
The enlargement was a success, regardless of the technical problems that existed and even still exist because they are the prospects opened because not only the EU has expanded, but our horizon.
Sure, sometimes it is not easy with a larger number of people and countries to deal, and each has its own interests, hopes and vision of each individual, and to some extent, every country. Only we need to understand that these interests are not really the interests of countries and nations, but that, if one stores only its national position, very similar problems of individuals and groups who live in different but yet similar situations.
The average Polish farmer has no other interests than the average French farm, and the IT specialist from Estonia probably thinks very much like an IT specialist from Ireland. Most people I've met, share a desire to be allowed to be mobile - whether for a short trip, an exchange, or for the rest of life, whether for 10 kilometers or 2000 miles - because it gives them the opportunity to their own small and big dreams come true. That is, we all have a similar story, no matter whether the characters look different or have the directors have a different style.
EU enlargement tells us this story, the story that we are able to integrate the "other" because the "other" is really like us.
We sometimes lose in institutional Debates, which are indeed true, since unity in diversity is not always a natural process but the result is well-designed institutional solutions. But the intrinsic value of the extension (s) and the prospect of enlargement are both driving forces for those who are already in the club and also those who still want to enter.
Without solid expansion opportunities, from the western Balkans, the Eastern European countries all the way to Turkey if it eventually is ready, there is no need and no impetus to change our views, no need to reform, not in these countries in the European Union itself, if we content ourselves with what we have achieved , we are losing sight of what we can still achieve.
Today I celebrate five years of EU enlargement and I celebrate it in the hope of being able to celebrate soon the accession of new countries into the Union - also because I over the last few years have also seen one yet: It
Nothing better than with his fellow-Europeans celebrate!
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