7 - EU enlargement

Summary

Introduction

Once, the roads of the Roman Empire “conserved and unified” Europe. Today, the European Union (EU) is laying roads and rails across Europe with a similar aim. The Maastricht Treaty seeks “the establishment and development of trans-European networks” in transportation (TEN-Ts). This includes railways, roads, airports, and waterways. With the accession of the states of Central and Eastern Europe to the EU, the TEN-Ts are being extended, connecting up new members with old. Like the Roman roads, these transportation networks aim to foster political and economic integration. At the same time, a second aim is to promote the national development of the new member states. In the projects themselves and within their policy documentation, a bias exists in favor of the first aim over the second. The knock-on-effect of promoting EU-wide integration through transportation projects may be the social and economic development of new member states as well. However, in a situation in which the relationships between new members and old are characterized by power disparities, this bias could instead result in an aggravation rather than amelioration of preexisting power disparities in which transportation networks are used to exploit cheaper labor markets rather than being used to equalize geographies and wages. Transportation policy is one site in which European Union membership will be given its real world meaning.

If projected economic development in Central and Eastern Europe proceeds to predictions, then the existing transportation infrastructure will be severely overtaxed.