Hit Me with Your Best Shot For & Against the EU

The most commonly heard arguments by the yes and no sides before the 2003 EU referendums.

Power Blocs
Yeses—Best Punch
“A no to the EU is a yes to Russia.”
—A common pro-EU argument, suggesting that rejecting the EU would signal to the Kremlin that the Baltics are fair game for economic, political and maybe even military pressure. Membership advocates say that the Baltics, outside the EU, would be in a geopolitical vacuum and so could very well be sucked back into the Russian economic and political sphere of influence.

Nos—Best Punch
“EU=SU”
—Anti-EU graffiti seen in Riga, likening the European Union to the Soviet Union. Skeptics say both shared a fondness of usurping national sovereignty. One anti-EU flier, stamped with a hammer and sickle and circled by EU stars, compares the European Commission to the Politburo. Counter punches Latvia’s Foreign Minister Sandra Kalniete: “We were occupied, incorporated by the Soviet Union … it was a kind of rape. Now we are approaching a marriage of love with the EU. That will be the difference.”

Timing
Yeses—Best Punch
“If our country doesn’t get into the EU now, Brussels will close the door—and we won’t even have a shot at entering for a decade or more.”
—Brussels hasn’t explicitly said this will be the case. But EU officials, apparently wanting to keep the pressure on for a yes vote, also haven’t promised anyone they’ll get a second crack at joining if they say “no thanks” now.

Nos—Best Punch
“‘Hurry Up! We might miss the train!’ they shout. Before jumping on this EU train, though, they haven’t bothered to ask where it’s going or how much the ticket’s going to cost. Even if it turns out to be cheap, it’s not such a hot trip if the end of the line is an alligator-invested swamp, now is it?”
—Igor Gräzin, a leading EU skeptic in Estonia, complaining that every government since the Baltics regained independence in 1991 has been saying Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia must win membership as soon as possible. Skeptics say that, in the process, the Baltics have been too quick to agree to unfavorable EU membership terms.

Economies
Yeses—Best Punch
“There will be both sinkers and swimmers in the global economy of the new millennium, and increasing competition. But we’re betting that the EU will be one of the swimmers, and a good team to swim with.”
—Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Latvia’s passionately pro-EU president. Added Former Estonian Foreign Minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves: “Development of road infrastructure, clean-up of the environment, rural development projects and everything else that comes from EU assistance will make Estonia a more competitive, richer country.”

Nos—Best Punch
“To qualify for EU entry, we’ll have to ditch the liberal market system that’s made us so successful.”
—Igor Gräzin, arguing that Estonia, as well as the other Baltics, have already had to slap on hundreds of new, EU-mandated tariffs and protectionist barriers that will harm trade with the U.S. and Asia. EU-skeptics say Baltic economies would be better off if they continued to streamline their economies and cut red tape, rather than follow the lead of what they say is the “socialist” model of the EU.

Investment
Yeses—Best Punch
“Without membership, (your country) would not be a less attractive place for investment—it would be a non-place.”
—EU Expansion Commissioner Günther Verheugen speaking in the Baltic states several years ago, arguing that investors would stay away in droves from a region that did not have easy access to one of the largest trading areas on earth.

Nos—Best Punch
“The Baltics have long had among the highest per capita foreign direct investment in the world. Who’s Brussels to say we can’t keep it up without them.”
—Anti-EU forces say the Baltics, as long as they stick to free-market policy prescriptions, could actually be far more attractive to investors as non-EU states.

National Security
Yeses—Best Punch
“The EU is certainly not a military alliance, but it is a security producer. Being a member of the EU, the security situation will improve. Members of the EU are basically immune from pressure from abroad.”
—Expansion Commissioner Verheugen repeating a favorite argument of pro-EU Balts. For many russophobes in the region, even those who otherwise have nothing good to say about the EU, the prospect that the Kremlin won’t be able to bully EU-member Baltics is a clincher argument for saying yes to entry.

Nos—Best Punch
“If it was ever true that the EU could provide any security at all, which we doubt, the point’s moot now that we’re scheduled to join NATO in 2004. And in a crisis, whose protective wing would you rather be under? The superpower U.S.’s or the weak-kneed EU’s?
—Many who take this position say the Baltics, if security is their main concern, ought to forget about the EU and focus on staying on Washington’s good side.

Culture
Yeses—Best Punch
“EU membership’s not a threat to unique Baltic cultures. They’ll flourish in the EU.”
—EU backers say invigorating new influences from the West are just what the cultural scenes here need. And, they add, it’ll be a two-way street: membership will also give the Baltics the chance to showcase their own cultures to a wider audience and to even influence cultural trends in Europe.

Nos—Best Punch
“What makes us uniquely Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian will slowly disappear within the EU, with the Baltic countries opening up to so many new, irresistible and corrupting cultural influences.”
—EU detractors say the Baltics are just too small, their languages and cultures too fragile, to survive as part of a continent-wide union—in which, they fear, the likes of England, France and Germany will dictate the cultural agenda.

Food Quality
Yeses—Best Punch
“EU membership will help raise food quality standards across the board.”
—Many public health advocates say that, without the pressure from Brussels, lax local regulators would have happily put off needed safety measures for years. This positive influence of the EU, they argue, extends to a range of long-ignored safety and social problems, from hazardous roads, to poorly maintained prisons, to the spread of the HIV virus.

Nos—Best Punch
“EU-grown carrots and strawberries don’t taste, or even smell. They’re so processed because of EU regulations that by the time you eat them you have to run to buy vitamins to supplement the nutrients that have been stripped out of them.”
—Igor Gräzin, adding that food prices will soar by at least 10 percent after the Baltics enter the EU. “Who should be skeptical about EU membership?” he said. “Anyone who eats.”