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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (187562)	5/1/2004 7:52:27 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571224

Ted, 450 million citizen of the EU. I wonder how long it will be before the European Union has a military to rival ours? 10, 15, 20 years? Will a Bush still be President? Europeans Greet New Era as EU Expands East Sat May 1, 3:45 AM ET Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Wojciech Moskwa WARSAW (Reuters) - Millions of people across the former communist East Bloc woke up as citizens of an enlarged European Union (news - web sites) Saturday after a continent-wide night of celebrations marking the final end of the Cold War. Reuters Photo Hundreds of thousands thronged open-air parties, concerts and firework shows from the Atlantic to the Baltic and the Mediterranean as the EU threw open its gates to 10 new members. Political leaders and ordinary people hailed the final closing of Europe's east-west divide, 15 years after the Berlin Wall fell and 60 years after the end of World War II. "It looks the same if you look outside the window, but we are now in the EU," a Warsaw radio presenter said introducing the news early Saturday. Star-studded blue EU flags were hoisted at midnight in eight central and east European states that endured decades of Soviet-dominated communist rule, and on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta. The EU's biggest expansion will increase the bloc's membership from 15 to 25 members, its population by 75 million, its territory by 25 percent -- but its gross domestic product by barely five percent. For East Europeans in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, enlargement crowns 15 years of often painful economic reforms since the collapse of communist rule. "We are returning to where we belong, to a community that shares the same values and visions," Estonian Prime Minister Juhan Parts of Estonia said in the former Soviet republic. The EU faces profound change as it tries to integrate poorer countries, stay manageable and control immigration and organized crime as borders move 1,000 km (620 miles) eastwards to adjoin Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. But at least for one night, the EU took a breather from its routine rows over money, power and fish quotas to celebrate. More than 100,000 revelers thronged central Budapest, feting their return from the cold with fireworks, music and champagne. In Poland's historic capital Krakow, 40,000 people cheered as a traditional bugle call sounded from the town's highest church tower was followed by Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," the official EU anthem. SUMMIT IN DUBLIN Leaders of the new 25-nation bloc, representing 450 million citizens, hold a ceremonial summit in Dublin later Saturday to mark the birth of the world's biggest trading bloc, rivaling the United States. Some 100,000 people are set to attend a mega-picnic in a small corner of land near the German city of Zittau, where Polish, Czech, and German borders meet. The happening will be attended by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his Polish and Czech counterparts. EU enlargement took effect officially at 2200 GMT but the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and Cyprus, began celebrating an hour earlier, since they are in a time zone east of the bulk of continental Europe. One of the fathers of European reunification, a tearful former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, told thousands at a ceremony in Zittau on the German-Czech-Polish border: "The message is there will never again be war in Europe." Rejoicing was more muted in Cyprus after split referendums last Saturday meant the Greek Cypriot south of the island joins the EU despite rejecting a U.N. peace plan, while the Turkish Cypriot north remains outside despite voting "yes."