One senior analyst said the bloc has prospered overall, but there have been ''bumps on the road, otherwise known as Poland and Hungary and possibly Slovakia''. He warned of the possibility several current EU-hopefuls might also violate the bloc's common values and interests.
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00:00 It's been 20 years since the EU saw its largest ever expansion.
00:07 On May 1, 2004, the leaders of 10 acceding countries presented their flags to then European
00:15 Parliament President Pat Cox in Strasbourg. The 15-member bloc grew to 25 with the addition
00:22 of the Baltic states, five Central European countries and the islands of Malta and Cyprus.
00:29 Their inclusion has reaped economic and societal benefits.
00:33 One can say that the economics have gone very well. All of the new member states have been
00:38 growing faster than all of the old member states. And their financial stability has
00:45 been reasonably good.
00:48 The people side, the migrationary movements in and out have been happening very freely
00:56 and in an orderly manner. Now the politics hit a few bumps on the road there, otherwise
01:03 known as Poland and Hungary and possibly Slovakia.
01:09 The 10 new member states represented a 20% increase in population and the EU territory
01:15 increased by almost the same percentage. The total GDP rose by about 9% while the GDP per
01:22 capita decreased.
01:24 The bloc's common values have since been threatened. Parliament triggered the Article 7 procedure
01:30 for Hungary in 2018 over issues including weakening judicial independence and abuse
01:36 of emergency powers. The procedure was triggered in Poland a year earlier in response to systematic
01:43 breaches of fundamental values and erosion of judicial independence.
01:47 The people of Hungary are divided over the country's EU membership.
01:52 We should be a part of Europe and not the Balkans and Russia, as Orbán is doing now.
01:59 We should be a part of Russia, we should be a part of China.
02:02 I am not in favour of the European Union being peaceful, I am in favour of a peaceful party.
02:09 The EU is preparing for the next challenge, another enlargement. Nine countries are vying
02:16 for membership. They include Western Balkan nations as well as Turkey and Ukraine. Some
02:22 say it's possible the new countries will violate common values and interests.
02:27 For the Balkans it can proceed really in the same way with safeguard mechanisms I would
02:34 say on the political side. Of course Ukraine is a unique case, it's a unique case for the
02:46 Balkans, a big, big one and we don't know how the war is going to end.
02:52 There are concerns Russia's increasing influence in the Balkans and its war in Ukraine will
02:57 break the potential for unity on the continent and a larger EU.
03:02 Cool.
03:03 (whooshing)