Ten countries joined the European Union Tuesday amid tension over the war in Iraq and over the extent the union should dictate foreign policy for member countries.
Malta, Slovenia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia signed accession treaties Tuesday. Eight are former Soviet bloc countries.
By joining the union, these countries can freely trade products and services among member countries, according to UW-Madison assistant law professor and EU expert Gregory Shaffer. Also, citizens from member countries are exempt from immigration controls and the countries can take part in lawmaking by the Council of Ministers, the governing body of the EU.
Disagreement over the war in Iraq marked the EU summit, which was held in Athens, Greece. Thousands of protesters gathered in Athens to condemn the war. Amid the delegates, Spain and Britain support the war, while Germany and France do not.
Yet French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke for the first time since the war began Tuesday, leading to speculation that relations between the countries are improving.
\I would like to see the United States, ourselves and Europe working in partnership together, and I think that is possible,"" Blair said.
Aside from the Iraq issue, the union faces difficulties in deepening the level of members' involvement, Shaffer said. He said some members want to do more than just interact economically; they want to create a common foreign policy too.
""The likelihood is that expansion toward the east will put the brakes on that process,"" Shaffer said.
Eastern European countries have stronger commitments to the United States because it helped them break from Soviet occupation, according to Shaffer. Swedish native and UW-Madison Veterinary Medicine Professor Lennart Backstrom agreed, although both men said it is still too early to tell how the countries' allegiances will affect the union.
""It appears you know, from this Iraqi experience, that those countries that have been under Soviet Union dominance for so many years, they consider themselves to be still uneasy about Russia and their ties,"" Backstrom said, ""and they are very thankful to Americans for the help they have received. So that makes them much more interested in and willing to play the American card than I think the rest of the Europeans do.""
