After the Wall: Central and Eastern Europe Confront Corporate Globalization

East Meets West: European Union Expansion and the Troubled Former Communist Countries

by Tony Wesolowsky

Prague, Czech Republic — Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the people of Central and Eastern Europe have yearned to retake “their rightful place in Europe.” Many see membership in the continent’s supranational bureaucratic behemoth, the European Union, as their ticket back. The EU is set to expand in 2004, absorbing 10 more states, eight of them former communist East Bloc nations. Its backers say EU expansion, which will stretch Europe’s political frontiers from the Atlantic to the Bug River, will forever close the book on the post-World War II order, which divided Europe into East-West camps.

Beyond the lofty rhetoric, East Europeans have more humbler hopes, namely that EU membership will bring them the good life enjoyed by their richer cousins further West. But will it? Many sober critics say that is unlikely. It certainly won’t be all gloom and doom. EU expansion is likely to lead to some economic development. But it will likely be patchy, sprinkled heavily in the region’s metropolises, like Prague, Budapest and Warsaw. Large swathes of the region, from the rustbelts to the countryside, are likely to remain mired in poverty, or close to it. MORE>>

Chernobyl Fallout: The Uncertain Future of Ukraine’s K2/R4 Nuclear Project

by Olexi Pasyuk

Kiev, Ukraine — The March 2002 parliamentary elections in Ukraine gave a mere 12 percent support to the party of President Leonid Kuchma, with a plurality of 45 percent going to the reformist bloc led by ex-prime minister Victor Yushenko. While many are celebrating Yushenko’s political victory as offering Ukraine hope that its 11-year economic collapse may come to an end, his political gains may also revitalize Ukraine’s controversial nuclear power program. Because Western governments and international financial institutions view Yushenko as virtually the only person in Ukraine they can seriously talk to, his victory may breathe life into a project which many would prefer to consider dead: the nuclear reactors known as K2/R4. MORE>>

Bank Accountability Redux: The Campaign for Compliance and Appeal Mechanisms at the European Development Banks

by Petr Hlobil

Imagine an Azerbaijani oil company coming to Texas to drill for oil in a national park. Imagine the company’s environmental impact assessment is available only in Azerbaijani, with only an executive summary translated into English. This is the mirror image of how the U.S.-based Frontera Resources has proceeded in Azerbaijan in an oil development project funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

In a country where the national authorities are intertwined with the oil companies, where the court system does not work properly, and where corruption is rife, citizens have little recourse to combat such developments.

In this context of weak government administrative structures and a government-industry complex committed to oil extraction and largely oblivious to concerns and about transparency, public consultation and accountability, the EBRD assumes a crucial role. The EBRD, an institution funded by European and U.S. taxpayers and the only multilateral development bank with a clear mandate to promote democracy, is the last hope for a citizenry seeking to exert some influence over the course of their nation’s development. MORE>>

Countering the New Masters: Central and Eastern European Workers Struggle to Hold Their Ground in Hard Economic Times

An Interview with Jasna Petrovic

Jasna Petrovic is editor in chief of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unionsí Central and Eastern Europe (ICFTUís CEE) Network Bulletin, and the regional coordinator of the ICFTU CEE Womenís Network. She is a trade union publicist and activist living in Croatia. MORE>>