Opportunity, anxiety in new Europe

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — “Back to Europe!” was the rallying cry of the downtrodden when this corner of the continent shook off communism 15 years ago.

Now, with European might and prosperity finally within its grasp, there is a palpable sense of great expectations, with all the attendant hopes and fears.

On May 1, the Czech Republic and nine other mostly ex-communist countries — three of them former Soviet republics — join the European Union, enlarging the bloc from 15 nations to 25.

The new Europe is already taking on some of the trappings of the nation-building that produced the United States — open borders, a shared currency, a constitution in the making.

The approaching enlargement unquestionably will be the Continent’s most significant economic and political shift since it was devastated by World War II and then cut in two by the Cold War.

But will Europe’s new dawn bring the best of times — unrivaled security, influence and wealth? Or some of the worst — price increases, a loss of national sovereignty, a harsh new class system dividing the “old” Europe from the “new?”

From the craggy coastline of the Baltic Sea to the thickly forested foothills of the Balkan Mountains, anticipation is undercut by anticlimax — a sense that the historic expansion will offer ordinary citizens too little, too late.

“Many people will be very disappointed. The expectations were sky-high — just not realistic,” said Petr Mach, who runs the Center for Economics and Politics, a conservative think tank in Prague.

“A lot of people who voted ‘yes’ to the EU didn’t understand what it really means,” he said. “Many people are entering with their hearts, not their heads.”

The ex-communist East, where many have embraced capitalism with an almost religious fervor, fairly pulses with yearning for a better life.

Estonian farmers imagine trading their mules for diesel-powered combines; Slovak motorists, their rusty Skodas for BMWs; Hungarian villagers, their thatched cottages and wood stoves for air-conditioned villas and three-car garages.

But they don’t want to be swallowed up in a Europe where policy is dictated by its big powers, or see their lawmakers — already preoccupied with implementing 80,000 pages of EU laws — supplanted by EU bureaucrats.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus, an avowed Euroskeptic, warns that governments will have “virtually zero influence” in the new European superstate.

In theory, the enlarged European Union will offer unprecedented freedom of movement and business opportunities. Overnight, it will widen from 380 million people to 455 million — a potential economic powerhouse dwarfing the United States with its 280 million people.

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