Cheap date
Stirring words bring eastern countries no closer to membership than before
IN THE Soviet Union people used to joke, “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.” In the curious relationship between the European Union and the 12 countries applying to join it, the Union's current motto seems to be, “We pretend to make a breakthrough and they pretend to believe us.”
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Cheap date”
From the June 23rd 2001 edition
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