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Three Beginnings The end of the year marks the beginning of at least three key processes in international politics, which will dominate the public debate in the coming months. First is the acceleration of Turkey’s EU integration. It is like squaring the circle - doubts about the size and cultural character of such enlargement meet promising prospects for geopolitical change. Opinions presented in this issue, showing divisions within the European Commission, are only the beginning of analyzing Turkeys’ future presence in the EU. One more aspect is evident – demography. The main topic of this issue is also the most pessimistic. What we know today about demography and its effects on the economy does not guarantee the present level of wealth in Europe for even the nearest future. The end of 2004 also marks George W. Bush’s election to a second term. MPP presents the US Presidents’ first post-election speech. There is also a third beginning – today of principal importance – European Union’s new policy toward Eastern Europe. EU’s new members, which differentiate (and will continue doing so!) Russia from the Ukraine, Moldova from Belarus, joined the Union at roughly the same time as increased repression in Belarus and Ukraine’s political crisis. This stimulated discussion on EU’s role in the region, its responsibility for countries, which today are the Union’s closest neighbors – political neighbors not only of Podlasie but also Provance, Andalusia and Porto. This issue of MPP presents the very beginning of this change, i.e., the first debate on Belarus, as well as all of the European Parliaments’ resolutions concerning our two neighbors. Is EU waking up too late on Eastern Europe’s policy? It can be said that a lot of precious time was lost. Ukraine’s awakening, however, shows that not all is lost. And if this is true, then EU’s enlargement into Central Europe bore, surprisingly, its’ best fruit not in terms of economy, which dominated accession referenda, but in geopolitics. |
