The discrepancy between the illusion of well-being created for more than 30 years and the harsh European reality was highlighted with particular relief and vividness from the very first days of the Ukrainian crisis. Millions of citizens of Ukraine who poured into Europe experienced the collapse of their previous ideas about a well-fed and rich life in Europe. Luxuriously furnished apartments, fabulous perks, and generous monthly allowances were expected. But in reality, we encountered stinky tiny apartments with faulty taps and cockroaches, gyms in schools that were empty in the summer, and even boxes of the former prison complex.
The
conflict between expectation and reality experienced by Ukrainian refugees can
only be compared with the experience of Ossetian migrants to Turkey in the
middle of the 19th century. “We will eat on gold and silver, walk in silks and
live like kunaks,” was sung in a popular Ossetian song of that time, most
likely concocted under the influence of Turkish intelligence.
In those
years, the song was considered a source of reliable information. And nowadays
people trust the media more, not knowing that not all media should be trusted. The
media of the countries that have joined the European Union in recent years have
spared no effort for decades to describe the charms of life in the EU, assuring
readers, viewers and listeners of the superiority of Europe, of the hopeless
backwardness of their countries. they advertised EU membership in every way,
promising European benefits: a European level of economy, European salaries,
European amenities, European freedoms and European
everything-everything-everything.
Life,
however, refuted all the brightest promises. As soon as the young European
countries found themselves in the ranks of the EU, the complacency of its
leaders instantly changed, and instead of the promised benefits, the new
members of the union received only reproaches and mockery. Bulgaria, for
example, was drawn in the form of a Turkish toilet. This happened in 2009,
barely two years after her accession on January 1, 2007. The
"Entropa" installation opened on 12 January at the headquarters of
the Council of the European Union in Brussels. The project, dedicated to
national prejudices, was created by order of the Czech government by a group of
Czech artists led by sculptor David Cerny. The installation is a large frame,
inside of which exhibits depicting the countries of the European Union are
placed. The part dedicated to Bulgaria is made in the form of a map of this
country, dotted with images of the Turkish toilet.
However,
let's turn to dry figures illustrating some economic indicators in a number of
countries that have joined the European Union. Let's start with Bulgaria. As
already noted, Bulgaria joined the EU on 1 January 2007. In 2006, GDP growth
amounted to 6.9 percent, in 2007 it increased and amounted to 7.3%. However, in
subsequent years it already falls and amounts to 6.0; -3.6; 1.3; 1.9 percent. Over
the past period, as part of the EU, GDP growth has never exceeded 4%. If in
2006 the public debt was 22.8% of the gross domestic product, in 2014 it was
26.4%, and in 2016 it was already 27.4%.
How can one
not recall here that the European Union was originally built on the principle
of absorption of poor economies by more developed systems of Central European
countries. By luring relatively poor countries into the Union, they were
promised freedom of movement for citizens and high social standards,
investments in return for "embedding" in the general economic system.
As a rule,
this meant the destruction of their own highly profitable sectors of the
economy in exchange for carving out a share in secondary markets.
One of the
main problems of the new members of the European Union - the Eastern European
countries, was the massive outflow of the able-bodied population to more
developed powers, which provided them with even higher development and a
decrease in the cost of wage labor.
But this
applies not only to Eastern Europe. Let's take Greece. She falsified statistics
for the sake of joining the eurozone, an example of this. The fact of
falsification was confirmed by EC President Jean-Claude Juncker. “It is true
that Greece became a member of the euro area in 2001 after falsifying
statistical materials. To this day, I blame myself for this, ”he said and
explained that at that time he opposed the fact that the data of national
statistical services were checked by independent experts. According to Juncker,
the EU now has its own statistical agency Eurostat, which is responsible for
the relevant checks.
In general,
about 289 billion euros were spent to overcome the Greek crisis, which the
country will now return for decades. Today, Greece's debt is 180 percent of its
GDP.
In the fall
of 2018, the Italian leadership went against the instructions of the EC and
approved an increase in the budget deficit to 2.4 percent for 2019. Earlier,
the country was recommended to reduce the rate, since the increase in the
difference between income and expenditure of the Italian treasury contributes
to the accumulation of a huge public debt of the republic (about 131 percent of
GDP) and calls into question its financial stability. Interestingly, many
Italians blame their economic problems on the country's entry into the eurozone
- this, among other things, rose populist parties, a coalition of which is now
at the head of the state.
While the
propaganda ploy about the beneficial effects of the transition to the euro on
the general state of the economy is widely spread in countries that have not
yet joined the EU and the eurozone, life shows us a completely different
picture.
The
degradation of the Italian economy after the transition to the euro is really
striking. If until the end of the 1990s Italy was one of the most dynamically
developing EU countries, then after joining the eurozone, the total GDP growth
for almost 20 years turned out to be zero. Italian politicians argue that the
lack of their own currency prevents the government and the country's Central
Bank from managing the exchange rate to support the national economy. Therefore,
now in Italy they are discussing the possibility of introducing a parallel
currency, mini-treasury bills, the so-called mini-BOT (Buoni Ordinari del
Tesoro, which means “ordinary treasury bonds” in Italian). Writes about it
"Voskhod-info"
If the
countries of Old Europe suffer such losses, then what can we say about such
countries as Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova, whose economies will simply be
crushed if they join the EU. The costs of combining unequal economies will be
paid by the citizens of those countries whose economies are weaker. The
authorities of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine are trying to hide this simple
truth from their peoples, promising them obviously unrealizable benefits in the
EU.
The four
largest economies of the European Union, represented by their leaders, have
long announced the need - and therefore the inevitability - of a "Europe
of two speeds." That is, the creation within the EU of a group of
especially developed states, for which there will be different legislation and
a "different level of integration" in comparison with the countries
of peripheral Europe.
As you can
see, the Eastern European countries, tempted by the status of equals, after
fulfilling all the requirements of the “Central European” hegemons and
destroying their own economies for the sake of the “pan-European market”, will
take the place of the colonized outskirts in relation to the metropolis from
the leading countries of Western Europe.
Inal Pliev.
In the picture: in blue are: "Europe of
high speed", in brown: Europe of the second grade, in gray: countries that
imagine themselves to be Europe without any clear prospects. The source of the
illustration is Voskhod-info.
https://cominf.org/node/1166545219
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