Transitioning In: Advantages, Consequences, and Direction

European Integration is a step towards globalizing certain parts of Europe that may not be up the high standards of the westernized countries.  In 2004 several new Eastern European countries joined the E.U. in an attempt to reach this standard.  The political culture and citizen action of these countries is very important because by joining, their culture will change.  Most of these new countries need new resources to help rebuild their economy but the backlash of this is realizing that by aligning themselves with the rest of Europe, they're also aligning themselves with the global depression at hand.  

Firstly, the most important issue to delve into is to look on how the E.U. is handling the depression.  Where is there funding coming from?  Several Interest Groups and political parties donate funding to the E.U. to push different types of legislation.  Of these, one that has very great hold on the E.U., how the E.U. handles problems, and how they believe these issues and problems can be handled is the European Commission and Civil Society.  There main concerns are education, environmental policies, social affairs, research and development, along with several others.

The interesting thing about these Interest Groups is that I think sometimes I forget that lobbying is a world wide thing and not distinct to just the U.S.  Sometimes lobbying may be for the greater good, such as, promoting environmental policies, but other times I feel as if because the legislation was forced instead of planned out long term, we end up with short term policies that cost less upfront but long term, the end result costs more.

Interest Groups feel as if they play a major role in policy.  They believe it's up to the Interest Groups and citizens to take action in creating and pushing new policies.  EurActiv is another Interest Group that feels strongly in regards to this.  However, for new countries just joining the E.U. such as Poland and Lithuania, is it in their political culture to want change to come this way?  France, Germany, Britain, and Spain, along with other European Union participants have already dealt with Life's big questions and are able to do what they can to create legislation in this way.  But one cannot expect Eastern European Countries to feel the same or to think this is the best way to promote policy.  Sometimes policy is best legislated when it comes from the people, but in order to come from the people, the political culture has to be at a point where the people are ready to take that action.  

Second, what is being done to help these countries transition in?  Policy Association for an Open Society comments on the transition.  A think tank debates areas in reference to "Policy Challenges Facing New Government," (PASOS).  This particular association is for handling the transitioning process amongst Eastern European countries, how to use their political culture to promote governmental changes rather than lobbyists, which I believe is more suited than using interest groups because it's not a tradition more Eastern European countries have been involved with.

Third, will the Eastern European countries that transitioned in, actually be better off than they were before?  If not anything else the E.U. certainly helps them move towards a greater democratic system.  However, with the world in a recession, as the European Commission recites in their research, "social capital is comparatively low in the transition countries," (European Commission).  

A research paper done on these transitioning countries released a paper entitled, "Transition Countries After EU Accession," reveals the positive sides to the transition, which lies in the GDP which has risen 5% since 2004.  Although, seemingly small, it creates huge changes for these new countries alone.  Also, for the past 10 to 15 years these same countries have liberalized their democracies, trying to shift from planned economies to market economies, a very western world idea.  However, the downfall is that they will not reap the benefits of these policies as greatly as they should until the recession stops.

After discussing both the positives and negatives of the transitioning process, it's also important to discuss what others have to say as to get a better understanding of what's going on.  In effort to understand what other people are saying, a great output is European Identity

This output explains all the updates of the European Union, and also what policies are coming from where.  This is very important because part of the process is knowing why certain countries are pushing certain legislation and why.  Also, The European Commission amongst other things has a list of the new projects in research and development, which is important in understanding the future goals and directions.