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)
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