It is clearly in the interest of both the United States and western Europe to encourage freedom and internal stability in central and eastern Europe, as well as the successful integration of central and eastern Europe into the Western democratic community of nations.

A variety of bilateral and multilateral forums and policies can reinforce the consolidation of political and economic freedom in central and eastern Europe, as well as their integration with the West.

Among European institutions, the European Union (EU) undoubtedly has the most potential for encouraging the political, economic, and security integration of Europe.

The EU, established by 6 European nations in 1957, has grown to encompass 15 countries. Originally a tightly focused mechanism for lowering economic barriers in western Europe, the EU has been evolving more recently into an instrument for economic and political integration among western European nations.

For obvious reasons, central and east European nations would like to join the EU. The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia have all applied for EU membership; Sl

France, which has sought to diminish U.S. influence over NATO, is concerned that new members from central and eastern Europe might be sympathetic to U.S. positions on issues within the alliance. Germany, for its part, seems very sensitive to possible negative reaction from Moscow.

Both western Europe and the United States have a strong interest in successfully integrating former Warsaw Pact nations with the rest of Europe. The challenge for statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic is similar: to assure that any new European arrangements continue to protect Europeans and Americans and defend against threats to their shared democratic values and institutions.

On a separate track, however, NATO, western European nations, and the United States have all established programs initiating a process of security integration between western and eastern Europe.

The EU has made a formal commitment to begin serious review of requests for admission by mid 1997, although this process may well be delayed. Any actual admissions would at the earliest begin around the year 2000; it is quite possible that they would commence several years later.

At the same time, there is no substitute for U.S. leadership. The United States remains a world leader, because it continues to be the only acceptable honest broker for European nations.

Many EU nations are also concerned about how producers and employment will be affected by opening markets to products from less-developed economies to their east.

For these reasons, recent suggestions concerning EU policy offered by Rudolf Seiter, foreign policy spokesman for Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Union, are worth noting. In a May 1996 article, Seiter suggested that central and eastern European nations be offered "partial membership" in the EU in the very near future, although full membership might still be years away.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1646
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)