no doubt they are, but the issue is who is going to pay the social protection etc. plus entering the eu and schengen means a visa system on the russian border which will destroy all the informal economy that has been built there to compensate for the lack of jobs (average 13% unemployment, up to 20% in some areas, according to the article.) you mention exports to the eu, but how much are agricultural goods in the gnp ? an exemple given in the paper goes like this : a fruit juice company was bought by an american company that laid off 90% of the workers. not only the company is now reduced to bottle concentrate juice imported from the states (and created under what labor/social/environmental regulation ???) but all the fruits that were produced localy for the plant don't have anywhere to go anymore.
ps the article is in the january issue, not february sorry.
jc helary
> had fifty years of practice in telling superpowers to step off, in subtle
> sorts of ways -- the advantage of comparative disadvantage, as it were.
> Poland's foreign debt remains pretty low, too, suggesting that a SE
> Asian-style crisis isn't about to happen.
>
> -- Dennis
>