2024-05-08 00:56:58
Since joining the EU in 2004, Eastern European countries have received more than €500 billion in investment, modernizing infrastructure, industry and agriculture. As Day.Az reports, Bloomberg writes about this.
This helped to significantly improve the standard of living of the population, increase life expectancy and reduce unemployment. However, the income gap between large cities and rural areas is deepening, the agency clarifies.
In Hungary, the EU is still withholding €20 billion in financial aid due to concerns about corruption and Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s erosion of democratic institutions. In Poland, the new government of Donald Tusk is trying to undo the legacy of eight years of rule by the nationalist Law and Justice party.
In Slovakia, influential Catholic priest Marian Kuffa openly criticizes liberal values and calls for the defense of Christianity, winning the support of the conservative electorate.
Despite the obvious economic successes achieved through EU membership, a significant part of citizens of Eastern European countries share populist and Eurosceptic views due to worsening social stratification and cultural and ideological differences, which threatens to deepen the political crisis in the region, the publication concluded.