agreements resulting from the summit, there are a host of issues facing existing EU members and new members that threaten a smooth transition for the proposed world’s largest trading bloc. In Hungary, farmers are worried that they won’t be ready to be full-fledged partners in the EU’s farming community by this May. In Estonia, the national asset forests are predicted by environmentalist to be largely depleted if logging continues at the current rate. In Lithuania, there is a long history of resistance and stubbornness to outside influence, a similar condition in Malta which remained bitterly divided over EU entry. Many in Malta continue to see EU membership as a deal favoring more powerful states, just one more in a long line of foreign attempts at domination. In Cyprus, supporters of EU membership are hoping it will bring peace to the torn nation, but many others doubt that membership will achieve this goal. The Czech Republic is in dire straights and will need great assistance to get up to speed with other nations in the EU. Other new members like Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia are keen on EU membership but problems remain. For example, in Slovenia a South Slavic language is spoken and not a Western European one. Poland, recently calling itself “a bridge to understanding between the United States and Europe”, may find itself at odds with Germany and France who both resent U.S. influence and dominance in the region, (Vinocur 2).
Existing member states also face a variety of issues to resolve if the merging of ten new members into the EU is to be successful. As Vinocur explains, “In the early 1990s, following Germany’s reunificatio
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