The working group “Europe and International issues” of the German Green Youth met on the 21st till 23rd February in Berlin to discuss the EU enlargement, the Convention on a European Constitution and the sanctions on Iraq.
The representatives of the Polish and the Hungarian embassy were self confident and (too) positive thinking as they looked forward to the enlargement. They said that the main reason for not being already part of the EU was because of their leaders and not because of their economic situation. The EU demanded competencies of them e.g. for the contact to eastern-European neighbours. Not very sympathetic: Concerning the presidency of the Union they hope for the old system of rotation instead of something modern with a more important role of the parliament. Of course it is difficult for them to give up the sovranity they gained so short before.
Concerning labour migration they support the position of FYEG: They said that wages and living standards should be developed so well that nobody would want to leave their countries. If anybody wanted to leave, they would already have done so. That is very good to say if not a professor from Frankfurt had told us only hours later that the economic criteria are only hardly fulfilled by the candidate countries. It will take more than just a few years until the EU standards will be reached. Concerning the economic situation he may be right. Concerning migration, the language barriers and the lack of good and well-paid jobs in East Germany will support what our Polish guest said.
In the case of the Iraq war, we see an immediate need to change the system of sanctions on Iraq. The actual system functioned well in hindering Iraq to buy new weapons but they also let civilians especially children starve to death. What should we do? The lists of sanctioned goods must be limited and restrained more on weapons and less on civilian goods needed e.g. for agriculture. It would also be helpful if there is a control in the weapon trade, not only where they are bough but especially where they are produced. Regards biological weapons a treaty for control is still needed, and regards chemical weapons better controls must be fixed.