Far From It.

Apparently, after years of resisting the long arm of the EU, Iceland is ready to jump on board. This is unsurprising after the small island nation nearly went the way of Lehman Bros. just a few months ago, but something else in the article really stood out to me. The Times writer points out that the fast-track treatment that Iceland has received—all while Turkey and Croatia (among others) have waited in queue for years—is raising questions about the perceived fairness of EU expansion. It appears that some are suggesting that the EU has somewhat of a moral imperative to take in poorer, less stable nations with the goal of stabilizing them. To me, it seems ludicrous that one bloc of wealthy, developed nations should be guilted for quickly accepting another nation that has proven its economic and political stability while being more skeptical about the accession of other less stable nations. After all, female rape victims are not beaten to death in the streets of Reykjavik. The same cannot be said for many areas of Turkey. And with the massive problems that the EU has been experiencing with the integration of Bulgaria and Romania, it is more than normal for the member states to exercise massive caution in letting in a nation like Croatia whose per capita GDP of $16,100 is less than half of the EU-27’s aggregate per capita GDP of $33,400.