Is the EU expansion policy fatally flawed?
The ongoing problems in Greece and potential issues regarding Spain and Portugal have highlighted the major expansion push instigated by the European Union over the last few years. This is a policy which has seen many relatively small countries join the European Union and tap into additional funding to finance changes within their own boundaries. However, was the European Union too quick to hand out money to economies which have until now been unable to support themselves?
While the major issues at the moment concerning Greece and the ever growing budget deficit, many people are concerned about relative new entrants to the EU from areas such as the Balkans. These are countries which have successfully tapped into the massive investment pool created by EU members to improve their own economies, introduced various controls and basically revamp their own economic outlook. However, there is growing concern that these countries are still relatively weak compared to more established countries within the Eurozone and could, over the weeks ahead, drag down the Eurozone economy as a whole.
Whether the move to significantly increase the size of the European Union in a relatively short space of time was a response to the power of the US is debatable but there are growing concerns about the fundamental financial position of the Eurozone as a whole.
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