Comment EU has turned a blind eye to the east as people move west
obtain 20 per cent of their national budgets from EU grants.
Remember, the economic miracle that occurred in Ireland was fuelled by similar forces.
At the peak of EU generosity, up to 25 per cent of the average Irish family income came from the German tax payer.
When one considers the overall scale of EU spending in Ireland, it’s hard to know whether the Irish revival is a serious national achievement or a lottery win.
In spite of this, at least Ireland seems to have used such aid to propel itself onto a new trajectory of improving prosperity and modernity.
The underlying problem with European free movement of people remains the massive discrepancy in incomes between eastern and western countries. This issue continues to be ignored. Given the success of the Irish example, it’s not at all unreasonable to suggest that the solution to the eastern European problems is more EU aid.
Major western countries such as the UK, Germany and France would have done better to add an extra £10 billion each to the aid budget for eastern Europe.
Even if the EU hadn’t offered free movement to nations such as Poland, a significant shift in population would have occurred anyway, such are the difficulties in keeping hungry people out of a gourmet lunch.
Only by the creation of local, prosperous economies in eastern Europe can the west persuade the eastern workforce to stay put and return to their countries of origin.
But the relative success and failure of a region is as much cultural as it is planned.
The trend towards more sophisticated light industries in the south of England was well established long before the First World War and much of the north and west of the country still struggle to overcome the loss of more traditional heavy industries decades after their loss.
Speak to people from modern eastern Europe and a similar message emerges – the same people are in charge.
The current wave of animosity to the eastern European worker isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
It could be used very easily by western Governments to raise the issue of stalled Eastern development and the need for an ongoing economic stimulus in countries that have yet to recover from the Cold War era.
At the same time people need to discard their inhibitions and ask the authorities in Eastern Europe for an explanation for their slow progress.
During the Cold War it was common for left-of-centre writers to blame the failure of the east on high defence spending.
Only when the Cold War was over and defence spending in the former Warsaw Pact countries fell from 20 to less than two per cent of GDP could these countries re-establish their civilian infrastructure and renew their industries.
Incredibly, that once distant dream has now been achieved.
The internet and modern telecommunications have connected even the most remote countries with the wider world.
Many of the more painful lessons of the road to modernity have already been learnt and many rapidly developing countries have been able to leap to fibre optic communications while countries like Britain continue to languish in the copper era.
What’s more, let us not forget the sheer scale of the modern global economy.
Since 1945 entirely new markets have appeared as if out of thin air and yet the former Warsaw Pact countries continue to founder.
EU officials were good at speaking sternly to western European workers deprived of their jobs by those from the east.
But they seem to lose their tongue when it comes to speaking to their counterparts in eastern Europe and demanding an end to the flagrant corruption and elitism that drives their stagnation and continues to manifest itself in division on the streets of the west. Steve Cutts is a doctor and writer
based in Worcestershire
In countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, the governments now obtain 20 per cent of their national budgets from EU grants