'The EU thus needs not to modify the nature of its demands — but apply more realism as to a realistic timetable.
..
In practical terms, that means a certain amount of nose-holding political contacts is needed. Pilot programs on visa liberalization should be tried out. Intermediary institutions like universities, trade unions and interfaith NGOs should be used to build contacts as well as regular minister-to-minister contacts.'<blockquote>'It is better to see the EaP bloc in the same light as some Asian and Latin American states in the 1970s and 1980s — incipient market democracies that have not yet arrived.
Asking them to comply fully with EU norms simply won’t work. It is akin to expecting the Korean, Taiwanese or Brazilian authoritarian regimes of their era to have disappeared before their time was up, quite literally.
Countries have to reach a certain level of democratic maturity before they can be seriously expected to achieve that undoubtedly critical goal.
The EU thus needs not to modify the nature of its demands — but apply more realism as to a realistic timetable.
The model should be the 1970s Helsinki process, a more coordinated use of Council of Europe mechanisms and an updated version of the 1970s West German government’s policy of “Wandel durch Annäherung” (gradual transformation through consistently getting closer) toward East Germany.
It was this approach, marked by patience and far-sightedness, that led to the détente era network of contacts. It was this seemingly innocuous mechanism across seemingly impenetrable ideological divides that paved the way for Czechoslavakia’s Charter 77 and Poland’s Solidarnosc.
In practical terms, that means a certain amount of nose-holding political contacts is needed. Pilot programs on visa liberalization should be tried out. Intermediary institutions like universities, trade unions and interfaith NGOs should be used to build contacts as well as regular minister-to-minister contacts.
In addition, the old human rights concept of punishing, sanctioning or boycotting unpleasant governments needs to be rethought.'
- Denis MacShane (
Source, September 4, 2013)</blockquote>
Context Sweden - '..The national debt tumbled from almost 80 percent of GDP in 1995 to only 35 percent in 2010.'<blockquote>
'..Brussels’s own interest to overcome its current shyness..', January 16, 2014
UPDATE 1-Euro zone debt level drops for first time in six years, January 22, 2014
U.S. Posts Record December Surplus on Fannie Mae Payments, January 14, 2014
(US, Europe, Japan, India, China) - '..through structural reforms .. Four percent growth could return.', January 21, 2014
'..The message was that shale will come and go..' January 15, 2014</blockquote>