EUthanasia and the New Iron Curtain
Has Hungary forsaken a golden opportunity for progressive change?
Hungary has voted to join the European Union (EU). In a referendum on the question of the EU membership, nearly 85 percent voted in favour of membership, with a little over 15 percent against. However, with an overall voter turnout of only 45 percent, the referendum isn't being considered a total success.
Although the ruling party expressed satisfaction with the result, many in support of EU membership couldn't help but feel disappointed with the low voter turnout. Indeed, the political bickering has already begun; the opposition pointed to the failure of the government-run campaign while even the junior coalition partner had called for an inquiry into what went wrong.
We sing of freedom, and we speak of liberation
Billy Bragg
but such chances come, but once a generation.
Yet those most disappointed with the result are the pollsters. They had consistently predicted a high turnout of around 75%, with the most conservative aiming at 65%. This is the second time in a year that they have made a disastrously wrong prediction. The first was during the national elections last spring, when all had predicted victory for the party now in opposition. The only difference among pollsters was the extent of the victory, one which subsequently never came about.
A historic Vote
Many pundits quickly put on a brave face when it became clear that the referendum would not have the massive turnout that was hoped for. Most pointed to the fact that the vote for EU membership was similar to that which was held for NATO membership. In fact, the statistics for the latter were a bit better. Then, 40% of all eligible voters had pushed Hungary into joining the military alliance, whereas now only 38% confirmed Hungary's membership to the EU.
Regardless of the final result, one thing is for certain: this has been moment which has been long in coming. So long in fact, that some have felt that the original purpose for joining the EU in the first place had changed or had been lost altogether.
Either way, most would agree that the referendum was a historic vote, and that a new age has begun for Hungary, as well as other countries of Central and Eastern Europe which shall soon follow with their own votes on EU membership. Still, one can't help but wonder: is this as good as it gets? Put in another way, has Hungary, as well as the other countries that will vote join the EU, perhaps squandered a golden opportunity for real change, the one that was hoped for when the walls came tumbling down in 1989?
Will EU membership be like NATO membership, full of hollow promises? After all, NATO membership was supposed to guarantee peace and security within the region; yet a mere three weeks after joining, the new members to the alliance (Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland) all found themselves officially part of the war in Kosovo. Moreover, the burden of now having to spend money on "NATO compatible" armaments -- money which is desperately needed to repair dilapidated schools and hospitals -- has put unnecessary stress on the country's public infrastructure, and has led to an overall decline in education standards and health services.
To what is Hungary really joining?
As with NATO, the EU of the 21st century is not the same as first envisioned. The times have changed; so too has the nature of politics and international relations, not to mention economics. The EU of today is more of a creature of globalisation, much like that of NAFTA in North America. This raises a fundamental question: to what is Hungary, and the other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, really joining?
Without doubt, what the EU represents is a large free trade zone. Although Eurocrats in Brussels talk about the pillars of EU society being built upon the "free movement of goods, services, and people", only the first two are of importance to Brussels. This is plainly obvious when anti-globalisation protests take place somewhere in Europe; European states have suspended the Shengen accords which allows for the free movement of people within EU, effectively re-fortifying the borders which separate states, at least until the moment passes.
But there is more. While the centers of power within the EU reserve the right at any time to deny citizens the right to move about freely, an immovable economic framework has been established to deregulate foreign investment and grant "national rights" to foreign investors. Meanwhile performance requirements are non-existent, ones which would force foreign investors to enhance local economies and support workers.
In essence, the EU is based on a model of "trade" in where member states are locked into various social and economic mechanisms that force governments to abandon domestic industry in favour of corporate, multinational interests. This includes converting the best agricultural land for export crop production. Support to local farmers is restricted as part of a wider package of spending cuts and the abandonment of various social programs.
Subsequently, all countries are expected to dismantle their public infrastructures. This has been very apparent in the new member states, many of whom had to go through this process of liberalisation first even before being considered for membership; meanwhile, many existing members held back from privatising their own sectors.
The "liberalisation" of services, which lies at the very heart of neo-liberal thinking, is the cornerstone upon which the new EU has now been built. All countries are expected to deregulate their electricity, transportation, energy, and natural resources sectors, removing regulatory impediments to foreign investment in these areas. Likewise, health and education systems have been "reformed" to allow corporations to sell health and education "products" to "consumers" who could afford them. Some basic services have been retained, but only because these are so inadequate and unprofitable that corporations are not interested in them.
The costs of liberalisation
What all this means is that cultural diversity and tradition, which is said to be protected under the EU, is actually being wiped out for the sake of economic and social harmonisation. This, in turn, is part of a much larger process of globalisation in where everyone thinks, acts, and shops the same way -- or at least impoverishes themselves trying.
The vision of a path to prosperity, on which the people of Central and Eastern Europe have been sold, has thus led to a sharp rise in the inequitable distribution of wealth in the region. Poverty has risen steadily, most new jobs provide little or no social security, and restricted access to health care and education has been imposed. Meanwhile, the mantra of conspicuous consumption and the rush to exploit natural resources has resulted in massive environmental degradation.
The situation looks set to only worsen now that Hungary and former East Bloc countries are set to join the EU. Transnational mining, energy, water, engineering, forestry, and fisheries firms have now greater access to resources, and are now armed with the right to challenge any government that tries to limit it. The ability of a country to protect its own environment or set standards for the extraction of natural resources has been undermined, along with the right to demand local jobs based on the activities of corporations.
In the larger scheme of things, what all this means is that the EU has turned itself into nothing more than a huge corporate power play that prevents governments and their citizens from determining their own future. Not only is the very social fabric of European society being ripped to shreds, but the very structures that make democratic government possible has been undercut.
This, of course, contrasts sharply with the image of how the EU is presented to people. The EU provides opportunities for those able to exploit them. The onus is on the individual: if things don't work out as promised, then it's your own fault.
A new iron curtain
At the same, a new iron curtain has descended on the fringes of the new EU, hiding the forgotten problems of the past. With the spectacle of death and destruction in the Middle East capturing the lion share of eyeballs and eardrums in the attention economy, regions once struggling to understand their place in the post cold war world have now simply fallen off the map.
In the end, this may prove to be a big mistake for Eurocrats in Brussels. A new fault line has emerged in eastern Europe, between the EU as a potential development partner and the aggressively imperialist US, who became suddenly interested in pushing the agenda of NATO integration for countries kept until now waiting in the wings.
While the more western and northern members of the now defunct East Bloc are set to enter the castle walls of fortress Europe, others forced to wait outside are faced with a dilemma. The split between Old and New Europe came at a point when it was too late shut the gates in the face of the Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, and others who did what Big Brother George told them to.
For countries like Romania and Bulgaria, however, the question remains as to how will the new world order will affect their chance for membership to the EU, not to mention the conditions that will now have to be met. Not only this, questions are being raised within these countries themselves of whether it's worthwhile to make the effort of joining the EU in the first place.
The outcome has been a strange mixture of voluptuous submission to the US and total ignorance of any implications that a commitment to such policies might bring upon a country that is, after all, part of an uncertain tactical context. This is best exemplified in Romania, where American military bases have appeared almost overnight in the south east of the country without any public debate.
The problem is further compounded when the issue of ethnic minorities is brought into the picture. In Hungary, membership to the EU comes as a mixed blessing; while the country is "moving to Europe", at the same time it's leaving many of its brethren behind. A quarter of all Hungarians in Europe live just outside its borders, thanks to the bloody politics of the 20th century which saw these areas unjustly detached from the country. As the forbidding walls of fortress Europe move further east, it literally cuts off these areas -- and entire families -- from one another.
Ironically, the only hope for Hungary is that this new iron curtain will be lifted and thrown away, that countries like Romania, Serbia, and the Ukraine will soon become a part of the EU. But with the arrogance of US foreign policy threatening to drive a wedge further between the countries of "Old" and "New" Europe, not to mention the possibility of the rhetoric of EU membership being exposed for the sham it really is, the reintegration of Central and Eastern Europe is not for certain. The new iron curtain may stay in place for a while yet, perhaps for as long as the old one did.