David McDuff posts an interview dealing with the culture clashes of eastern Europe and “Old Europe.” Here’s the excerpt:

The notion that Ukraine or its new president-elect are now the darlings of the EU is almost laughable. The EU would have completely ignored this crisis had it not been for the new accession states–Poland and Lithuania in particular. The EU has completely ignored the abuses of the cryto-Stalinist regime in neighboring Belarus for years. The last thing EU bigwigs want is another “eastern entanglement” especially one that will cause any unpleasantness with Russia. The European left is furious with the Poles and Lithuanians for dragging the EU into Ukraine. On January 5, the Spanish Socialist President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, in a closed-door session of the Forum for New Economics in Madrid bitterly denounced the new members as agents of “U.S. influence.” This hardly sounds like a love-feast in the making.

The EU faces a huge dilemma with regard to Ukraine. It can hardly bar Ukraine from any consideration of future membership while offering Turkey a path to full membership. Yet the inclusion of a huge country of 48 million would alter the EU almost beyond recognition and hugely complicate relations with Russia. There is serious concern about the present set of new members–whether they can be fully integrated, whether they are too pro-American or too free-market oriented. The prospect of Ukraine as a potential member will be rather terrifying to the Eurocrats and the French leadership.

How true it rings. I was having this discussion earlier actually. Their is a vast culture difference, socially and economically, between the countries of eastern and western Europe. There are also differing historical ties. Old Europe accused Poland of taking a “pro-U.S.” stance toward Ukraine’s revolution, when the reality is, Poland is simply an historically old friend of Ukraine and sees it as beneficial to help it. Just because Poland took the side of Ukraine against Russia (And against the EU, since they would have rather ignored the conflict), doesn’t mean they were being “insubordinate” or taking the side of the United States. Thats ridiculous. They may be a part of the EU, but they still have their sovereignty and they stll have their personal friends.