Screwed up
Eastern approaches 2013-09-11
Summary:
WHEN the only tool you have is a hammer, then it is tempting to look for nails. Following the success of the European Union’s eastward expansion in 2004, it was tempting to apply the same approach to other candidate countries. The assumptions were that the public and the elites in each case supported membership, but would need a bit of help in overcoming entrenched interests and pockets of backwardness. Tough but friendly conditionality from the European Union would help apply pressure in the right places.
A hammer can, in the right circumstances, substitute for a screwdriver. You can bang a screw into a piece of wood in a way that serves the broader purpose, even if the result is not up to the highest standards. (I write as an enthusiastic and incompetent DIY-er). So the EU’s conditionality-based approach worked a lot less well with Romania and Bulgaria, but it did work in the end. Most people would agree that too little was done, particularly on organised crime and grand corruption in Bulgaria, and on the criminal-justice system in Romania. Most people would agree, though, that even being among the poorest and worst-run...Continue reading