08/05/2005 7:56:46 pm
A United Europe. Today, it is one year and one week since the EU got ten new member states. And tomorrow, we will celebrate that it is 60 years since the end of World War II. (The German film "Untergang" can be strongly recommended since it gives a good picture of the insanity that was at the epicenter of the Third Reich during the last days.) There will be big celebrations in Moscow, which Per T Olsson writes interestingly about here. The two dates have a strong symbolic connection. Eight of these ten new EU member countries were oppressed by Soviet communism, and when they entered the EU, that was the final end of it. And the reason they were under communism was the fact that the Soviet Union was defeating Nazi Germany from the east. Many of these countries just went from one tyranny to another. They were oppressed by the soulmates Hitler and Stalin in turn. One reason for the Western allies, mainly the US and Britain, to invade by D-day and march from the west was to stop the Soviet Union from going further west - apart from the obvious reason to finally defeat Nazi Germany. The EU is indeed an imperfect union, which it always will be, with several great challenges today. But in that historic perspective, it has contributed to a great development. The former communist countries in the east and military dictatorships in the south achieved stable democracy much faster than they would have without the EU. There is much to celebrate tomorrow - and much to learn.



The famous picture of a Soviet soldier putting the flag of another totalitarian state on top of the German Reichstag.