New NATO, EU members call for enlargement to continue eastwards

The Czech Republic has just marked the 5th anniversary of NATO membership, and joins the European Union in less than six weeks' time. But while the Czech Republic and most of central and eastern Europe is now safely ensconced in NATO and the EU, attention is now shifting to the south and the east - towards the Balkans, the Black Sea, even the Caucasus. Last week, leaders of more than a dozen countries met in the Slovak capital Bratislava, to discuss the future of European integration. Rob Cameron attended the summit, and has this report.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Mikulas Dzurinda and Guenter Verheugen, photo: CTK

Unprecedented security surrounded Bratislava's Reduta concert hall on Friday, as leaders from Latvia to Albania gathered for talks on the future of Europe. At the beginning of April seven countries will formally become members of NATO, and on May 1st the EU expands by 10. But many would like to see that list extended even further. Mikulas Dzurinda, prime minister of Slovakia:

"European integration is a great deal. We believe in it. But our task of uniting Europe is not yet finished. And we should use the opportunity ahead of us. A bigger Europe is also a stronger Europe. The bigger the better. We all share a common responsibility for European affairs, including a wider Europe. And we want to contribute."

In less than six weeks' time, NATO and the EU will cover much of central and eastern Europe, from Talinn on the Gulf of Finland to Koper on the Adriatic. New members like Slovakia now believe they have a duty to help those countries still languishing in Europe's waiting room, to ensure that NATO and the EU continue expanding to the south and the east. And the people in charge of that process agree with them. Guenter Verheugen, the EU's Commissioner for Enlargement:

"If we discuss the future of Europe, we discuss in reality the question of how we can project peace and stability and prosperity to all parts of Europe. With the enlargement process more or less completed, we are now facing new challenges to all parts of Europe."

And his words were echoed by Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Secretary General of NATO.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Mikulas Dzurinda, photo: CTK

"May I very briefly qualify this as a conference about ambition. About ambition of countries - many countries - to demolish the dividing lines which have so long existed in Europe. It's a conference about ambitions fulfilled. On the second of April, very soon indeed, seven new countries will accede to NATO. Ambitions of other countries represented here as well, who have clearly indicated that they have the ambition, in the direction of the European Union, in the direction of NATO. I think we have an obligation to fulfil that ambition."

These are fine words, but can they really be translated into action? Public enthusiasm for enlargement among current EU citizens is already dwindling, and many politicians in Europe ask whether further expansion is financially feasible. Added to that is a fierce debate over what Europe is - should it be defined by geography? or shared values? or religious affiliation? With all that in mind, how realistic is it to talk about Albania's membership, or Macedonia's, or Georgia's? Alexandr Vondra, former Czech ambassador to Washington, says only by expanding the EU and NATO can Europeans guarantee their own prosperity and security.

"Well I think that Europeans would have to decide what they really want. If just to build a fortress and defend their welfare from, you know, "the barbarians from the East" I would say that this kind of approach would be generally unwise. And I think that the only way is really to seriously contribute to the stabilization of the European periphery, in the South, in the East, because otherwise I think that there is a serious threat that the instability from the East and South could be imported into the core."

Friday's summit was proof that the new members of NATO and the EU - once satellite states in the Soviet empire - haven't forgotten about the rest of Europe. It also seems clear that the two organisations themselves do not regard this unprecedented wave of expansion as the last. It's now up to the governments - and taxpayers - to decide where the borders of Europe should end.