02/05/2006 11:43:26 am
1st of May - Worth Celebrating. Well, of course not the statism and collectivism that the socialists celebrate. I refer to the enlargement of the EU on the 1st of May two years ago. It has been a great success, probably the single most important achievement by the EU ever. The process not only enhanced reforms in these countries and thereby political stability. As EU members, the also provide healthy competition for Western Europe. In the long run, this can only produce a reform race to the top.

Eight of the ten new EU members were liberated from oppression by communists with red flags. Now, countries like Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia - and others - have pursued market-oriented reform and have among the world′s highest economic growth rates. The socialists that demonstrated yesterday not only resisted this liberation, they also try to force these countries to abandon their success by, for example, tax harmonisation. Red and wrong yesterday, red and wrong today.