New EU nations face many economic, cultural disparities

When Lithuania and nine other nations join the European Union on May 1, Rolandas Paksas won't be leading festivities as planned. Lithuania's parliament just booted him from the presidency for corruption. Poland's first day in the European Union (EU) will be the last in office for its prime minister, Leszek Miller. He steps down prematurely May 2 — a victim of high unemployment and unpopular spending cuts to get Poland ready for EU membership. In veteran EU countries, meanwhile, labor unions, politicians and the public fret about job losses as industries shift from high-cost countries such as Germany to Slovakia, Hungary and other low-pay EU newcomers. On May 1, the EU swells to 25 countries in welcoming 10 new members, mostly from the former Soviet bloc. If all goes as planned, Bulgaria and Romania will join in three years. The expansion, the EU's biggest, will create a trading bloc of 450 million people and, so Europeans hope, give the continent greater global clout in an era of U.S. dominance. However, the payoff may take time. Huge disparities separate the rich, established Western democracies from nations recently liberated from the Soviet empire. Those differences vary from wages to the quality of roads to public attitudes about a citizen's relationship to the government. Western European motorists cruise wide, well-maintained superhighways while easterners rumble over narrow, potholed roads. Glitzy malls and boutiques in Prague and Warsaw offer pricey goods, but only to tourists and the few locals who can afford them. Germans and the Dutch would never think of bribing their way out of traffic tickets, a common practice in the east. Rather than propel Europe into global leadership, expansion could lead to a long period of introspection as the EU struggles to digest the newcomers.