From Fragmentation to Integration

Abstract

Between 1989 and 1992, in a stunning sequence of events, 350 million Europeans were liberated from an oppressive ideology. As a result, today, all across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, democratically elected political leaders are trying to convince their citizens that democracy and the market economy are worth their current economic struggle. These leaders know that their new democracies will succeed only if their countries are encouraged and supported by a stable and farsighted European Union. The end of communism has given the European Union the opportunity to become the new centre of power on the continent. If the Union makes the most of this new role, it can be instrumental in turning Europe into a continent of peaceful, democratic free-market nations. The Union has the power to become the principal architect of a new European order. But if the Union is going to both inspire and actively assist the troubled East, then its member countries must not only talk the doctrines of cooperation and integration. They must recrecognise that as members of the European Union they need to behave as living examples of the benefits of unity.