EU, Please, Colonize Us! - Take Two

Almost a year ago - on May 21, 2008, I published an editorial entitled "EU, Please, Colonize Us", (It is available here: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=93336 ), getting both positive and negative feedback on my arguments.

Now, a year later, the Bulgarian government has practically failed to crack down on abuse of EU money, and on corruption in general, the European Commission has deprived Bulgaria of several hundred million euros over these issues, Bulgaria got what turned out to be the most devastatingly critical monitoring report in EU history, and is bracing for a similar one in the coming summer.

The Economist has just published information that the Bulgarian government - the Prime Minister Stanishev, Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Kalfin, and their advisers - have come up with a secret plan for "EU colonization of Bulgaria" of a sort - as a way of tackling Bulgaria's issues.

(Summary of The Economist article is available here: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=102108 ; full text of The Economist article is available here: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=102095 )

According to The Economist, the plan would allow European officials and diplomats to "be involved in monitoring implementation of laws, managing EU funds and supervising courts, prosecutors and investigators", and would run parallel to the existing "mechanism for cooperation and verification" of the European Commission. Pretty fascinating, ain't it?

The Economist, however, seems to present this whole thing as an oddity or a curiosity. It underscores the plan had received negative responses by the European institutions and the EC President Barroso. It even likens it to the presence of Soviet advisers in Bulgaria after 1944, calling it a "mechanism for joint government of a country", in which the Bulgarians already have certain experience (i.e. the Soviet presence).

The whole matter seems to be a lot more serious to me, though. While this so called "colonization plan" might be perplexing in its form and essence, its very coming into being comes to emphasize something very important.

Namely, that if Prime Minister Stanishev and Deputy PM Kalfin have figured they needed this secret plan, asking secretly for EU help, this is a clearly a recognition that in the present situation they can do only so much...

The sad truth is that for some twenty years now the Bulgarian state has not been by far the major (or at least not the only) power factor in Bulgaria...

I don't believe Prime Minister Stanishev is lazy and just wants to have the Europeans do his job. He simply seems to be in a situation in which cannot do it. Now, is this because of his own impotence as a statesman, or because there are extremely powerful factors and interests preventing him from doing it?...

That I don't know. But if the latter is the case, a secret plan asking for EU help not only makes sense, but it is also a very serious indication of how grave the situation is...

Because with all due respect to the so called "cooperation and verification mechanism", which is supposed to track Bulgaria's post-accession progress, all that this "mechanism" can do is potentially figure out how corrupt officials and mafia "cooperate" in siphoning off EU funds, and then "verify" their "cooperation"....

Now that we have just seen some moves in the direction I suggested a year ago - and they are on part of the Bulgarian Prime Minister - I would like to reemphasize my point.

The EU needs to evolve towards figuring out a new mechanism that would allow it to help its member states and its prospective members deal with severe internal issues. This seems to be the only way to make sure that states like Bulgaria and Romania, already in, and like Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia, Georgia, the Ukraine, waiting in the line, will really make it to stable democracies, market economies, and rule of law, and won't fail under rampant corruption and organized crime, contributing to a stronger EU.

This actually will not be colonization but a new dimension of solidarity to help tackle the overarching threats of the 21st century.

I will conclude with a quote from my editorial from May 2008:

"Whether such an overarching supranational authority for Brussels would be the beginning of a new superstate? Maybe, or maybe not. But for the good people of Bulgaria and a number of other societies to the East waiting in the EU line, this seems to be the only hope..."

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