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| 2010 Február 08 (Hétfő) |
Aranka névnapja |
Articles/Cikkek |
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Security Curtain Raised Along EU's New Eastern Front
Kedves Barátaim/Dear Friends!
This time a few comments on this very realistic presentation of a very
serious problem.
Prime Minister József Antall, speaking at the signing of the Paris Charter
in November 1990, warned against the replacement of the Iron Curtain with
a Welfare Curtain or Welfare Wall. That has materialized, fortunately less
on the western than on the eastern border of Hungary. Since 1993 I have
repeatedly called for this new Eastern Frontier to be pushed eastward, so
that it could be eventually eliminated and the Wild East could be tamed,
like it had happened with the Frontier in the American West.
Unfortunately the EU has not done much for the development of the new Wild
East, except demanding Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Baltic States to
introduce strict visa requiriements and to strengthen border controls.
If anyone in the EU bureaucracy had taken the trouble to have a close look
at the area covered by the article below, the Subcarpathian region of
Ukraine in general and the Upper Tisza region in particular, it would have
been evident that the best way to secure this border, streching from the
southeastern corner of Poland to the Máramaros Mouintains on the
Romanian-Ukrainian border, would be the transformation of Subcarpathia
(called Transcarpathia by Kiev) into a special Euroregion, a bridgehead of
development, a testing ground of methods for helping Ukraine becoming a
candidate for Europe.
Subcarpathia is separated from the rest of Ukraine by the mountain range
of the Carpathians, a natural obstacle to traffic of any kind. It can be
traversed only using one of the four mountain passes, which makes
controlling the movement of people, goods and criminals rather easy. The
EU should set up a kind of preliminary border control on these passes.
That would make the control of the borders of southern Poland, eastern
Slovakia, northeastern Hungary and northern Romania very easy. Today
Subcarpathia is a bridgehead for crime - like it used to be a bridgehead
for the military control of its four neighbors during Soviet times - that
is why it was annexed by Stalin in 1945. Tomorrow this land of exquisite
natural beauty, with great touristic potential, should become a bridgehead
of development for Ukraine. Perhaps a tax-free zone? A visum-free area?
Let us think about how to move ahead on this issue. Please pass this
message on to those who might be interested and who could do something
about it.
Géza Jeszenszky
Security Curtain Raised Along EU's New Eastern Front
By Keith B. Richburg
ON THE TISZA RIVER, Hungary
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5420-2003Jul30.html
The edges of the European Union are about to shift east, to run down the
middle of this winding river's gray-blue waters, where the affluence of
the soon-to-be bloc of 25 nations will rub up against the poverty of the
former Soviet Union.
It is here that Hungarian border guard Tibor Toth maneuvers a sleek new
blue and white Quicksilver Cruiser on patrol. At his side is his
commander, Capt. Attila Nagy, peering through binoculars. They are looking
for anything out of the ordinary among the boaters and the swimmers off a
sandy stretch of Ukraine, on the other side.
Patrolling this river border has until now consisted mostly of warning
Hungarian boaters against drifting too far to the Ukrainian side, stopping
swimmers from testing their mettle by trying for the opposite bank, or
occasionally finding cartons of contraband cigarettes floating in
waterproof plastic sacks.
But when Hungary joins the European Union May 1, this 150-yard-wide river
will form part of the bloc's outer borders. It might prove a tempting back
door for illegal migrants from Central Asia heading for London or Paris,
for arms and drug smugglers, or even for a terrorist armed with a portable
nuclear bomb.
The job of patrolling "will definitely be tougher, in all respects," Nagy
said. But, he added: "We think we're ready."
Along the borders that the 10 nations scheduled to join next year share
with non-EU countries, controls are being tightened, with new rules, new
posts and new sensor equipment. What people inside the newly configured EU
see as necessary frontier defense, many left outside see as the building
of a "Fortress Europe." Added security for those inside the EU club means
added inconvenience -- and perhaps added misery -- for those left out.
"People say there used to be the Berlin Wall -- now there will be the
Schengen Wall," said Jozsef Beri, a gas station employee in Ukraine,
referring to the 1995 "Schengen agreement" that allows for cross-border
travel without passports between most EU states, but strict controls to
enter them from the outside.
Beri, like many of those who make the crossing regularly between Hungary
and Ukraine, is an ethnic Hungarian, whose family ties extend across the
border. He has an aunt and several in-laws he sees often, but he worries
that as the walls of Fortress Europe go up, Ukrainians -- even those with
ethnic roots in Hungary -- will need visas to make a crossing that now
requires only a passport.
"If we could only go over once a year, that would be terrible," he said,
waiting in line as his car was searched by a border guard. "We don't have
enough money in Ukraine to pay for lots of visas."
The European Union has been spending tens of millions of dollars to
reinforce this particular stretch of border. Capt. Nagy showed a reporter
the new equipment to outfit his guards -- a belt consisting of a gas
spray, handcuffs, a 9mm pistol, a truncheon, and a walkie-talkie. There
are now hand-held heat-sensing cameras that can detect a person at night a
mile away, and, out in forests near the border, underground sensors that
can detect anything from a heavy vehicle to a person trying to slip
through.
The radar-equipped patrol boat is also new. "We used to have a boat that
didn't have any equipment at all," Nagy said. "We couldn't really patrol
at night, because we had to put the lights on, and it was loud."
At the Zahony bridge -- the main crossing between Hungary and Ukraine --
defenses have also been strengthened with EU money. The bridge was widened
to create a truck lane, and there are computerized screening devices to
read passports and license plates. There is a machine that scans the
inside of trucks and senses body heat. There is a new warehouse -- built
to EU standards -- to house and, if necessary, quarantine livestock and
food coming across the border.
Vehicles crossing the bridge now pass between two six-foot-high
cream-colored poles with radiation sensors mounted on top -- a change
introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
"Nuclear smuggling is not a problem here," said Deputy Col. Laszlo Gal at
the bridge. "All the gates here have nuclear sensors. You can't get
anything across."
Under EU rules, the new members -- which like Hungary are mostly former
communist countries -- must also tighten their visa requirements for
non-EU citizens, and in some cases that means clamping down on citizens of
neighboring countries who have long enjoyed easy access.
In Poland, for example, that has meant new visa requirements for
Ukrainians, Belarussians and Russians. In Hungary, the visa requirement
has proved particularly problematic because of the large, ethnic Hungarian
population in neighboring countries. About 1.5 million ethnic Hungarians
live in Romania, 300,000 in Serbia and 200,000 in Ukraine.
Many of those in Ukraine cross the border each day as "petrol tourists,"
selling Ukraine's cheap gasoline and cigarettes in the town of Zahony, on
the Hungarian side.
"Everyone is waiting to see what will happen," said Andreas Baka, a
petrol tourist who is an unemployed ethnic Hungarian from Ukraine. He said
he makes about 1,500 Hungarian forints in a day, compared to the 4,500
forints he receives each month in unemployment benefits at home. "I really
hope the ethnic Hungarians can get the visas easier," he said.
"This is our only livelihood, because we don't get any social benefits,"
said Maria Kasco, a mother of two who was waiting in line at the border
with her husband, Laszlo. "There are no jobs. There's nothing, nothing
over there [in Ukraine]. It's really difficult. We are Hungarians. I don't
even speak Ukrainian."
Under EU rules, Hungary cannot make special provisions to allow ethnic
Hungarians in Ukraine or elsewhere to work in Hungary. But Hungary is
trying to maintain ties with this group through various social
organizations.
Many analysts question whether the EU, as it expands its frontiers, is
creating new divisions on the continent -- between rich and poor, those
reaping the benefits of EU membership on the inside and those left out --
that could create new tensions and potential instability.
"It's a huge issue," said Heather Grabbe, a researcher with the Center
for European Reform, a research organization in London. "There's a lot of
talk about 'Fortress Europe' and the feeling of being left out," she said.
"That's one of the sad things about EU enlargement; it does have this
exclusionary impact."
That effect could have far-reaching consequences, Grabbe and other
experts said. At present, "out" countries Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus
have per capita gross domestic products that are a small fraction of the
average of the EU's current members. Each of the 10 new countries coming
into the EU next year also has a lower per capita gross domestic product
than the current members, but the average is about double that of the
"outs."
Grabbe and others said the continuing exclusion of such countries as
Ukraine, Moldavia and Belarus could help ensure that they remain far
behind economically.
The question of exclusion goes to the heart of the still-unresolved
debate within the European Union over where expansion should end. What,
exactly, defines Europe? Is it 25 countries? 27? Or 45?
Russia, for example, considers itself part of Europe. But Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi of Italy sparked protests from many of his EU colleagues
when he suggested, after meeting President Vladimir Putin, that Russia be
admitted to the union.
Turkey considers itself European, and has been told it will be a
candidate for membership if it meets certain conditions on human rights
and democracy, but most of its landmass lies outside what geographers
define as Europe. Also, if Europe is defined, as some would like, as
countries that widely share Christian values, Turkey would be left out as
a predominantly Muslim country.
The Balkans -- Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia -- are
considered European, sitting at the heart of the continent, and there is
wide consensus that they will be offered admission once political
stability is restored following the unrest and ethnic warfare of the
1990s. These countries have already signed special "association
agreements," giving them trade access and other ties to the EU.
Bulgaria and Romania have been accepted for the next round of EU
enlargement, tentatively scheduled for 2007. But analysts in Europe say
that Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine have little chance of ever entering,
being geographically farther away and economically and politically further
behind. To assuage them, the EU has given these countries "partnership
agreements," which allow them to have regular political talks with the EU
and possible future trade ties.
Ukraine's president, Leonid Kuchma, has spoken of his desire for Ukraine
to be admitted to the EU, with talks to start in 2007, and he has
reportedly complained that the EU "is replacing the Iron Curtain with a
paper curtain," referring to new visa requirements.
Among the travelers who come here for trading, and the border guards who
speak with them daily, there is general agreement that Ukraine is too far
behind the rest of Europe economically and politically to join the club.
"We have to go very far down the road to get near the European Union,
that's for sure," said Beri, the gas station attendant. "First, we have to
make some order in our own country."
"The difference between Ukraine and Hungary is 40 or 50 years," said one
of the Hungarian border guards. "But even 40 years ago, people in Hungary
could live off the land. In Ukraine, most people are very, very poor."
He added, "The only thing we are jealous of is the price of their
petrol."
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