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Czechs and Slovaks starting to wonder: why join the EU?

Melting snow is yielding to spring flowers in the mountains that ring the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

At the same time, EU enlargement is melting the last political and economic barriers that have separated these closely-related countries from the rest of Europe since the Iron Curtain appeared 56 years ago.

But for average Czechs and Slovaks the enlargement process that ends May 1, when the EU adds 10 mainly former communist countries, has been far less serene than spring in the mountains.

A key reason is uneasiness -- and in some cases anger -- over the economy. In recent months that unease has prompted protest marches, an election backlash and even riots.

Steep tax increases on goods and services took effect in January, and more changes are scheduled for May.

Slovakia's value-added tax, or VAT, rose to 19 percent for bread, water and medicine. The highest Czech VAT climbed to 22 percent for hairdressers and phone services, for example, but is scheduled to fall back to 19 percent in May.

At the same time, social benefit checks were trimmed and government institutions including armies and state-run railways started cutting jobs.

Hundreds of food companies and thousands of small businesses that couldn't comply with new, EU-related rules shut their doors, contributing to unemployment rates topping 10 percent in the Czech Republic and 16 percent in Slovakia.

In each country, budget reforms were approved by coalition governments and parliaments last fall. The reforms are aimed at paying debts incurred during the 1990s transition from communism and to help qualify the countries for the euro currency in a few years.

But negative reactions to the reforms have shadowed many sectors of society, shedding doubts on the value of enlargement. The mood is opposite the upbeat feeling common just a year ago when Czech and Slovak voters overwhelmingly approved referendums to join the EU.

A recent poll, for example, found 84 percent of Czechs consider unemployment a serious problem. The poll was conducted after February's jobless rate hit a record 10.9 percent nationwide and 20 percent in some areas.

In Slovakia, voters April 4 surprisingly rejected two establishment candidates for president -- incumbent President Rudolf Schuster and Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan. Instead, they chose government opposition leaders Vladimir Meciar and Ivan Gasparovic -- both critics of the current government reforms -- to advance to the election's final round in two weeks.

Among the Czech Republic's 10 million people and Slovakia's 5 million, the economic unease has also triggered strike threats, one-day walkouts and protest marches.

Thousands of university students, for example, recently marched through Prague as part of a weeklong, national protest for higher education spending.

Civil servants plan to strike this month over the loss of Christmas bonuses. Doctors have staged work slowdowns to protest hospital debt, and pharmacists have lashed at new taxes for medicine.

Anger over finance reform measures prompted the head of the Czech pharmacists' chamber, Dr. Lubomir Chudoba, this week to accuse the health ministry of "deserting its duty before entry into the European Union."

Groups representing Czech restaurants, hotels and theatres have shown similar repugnance over plans to hike taxes for their customers. Slovak trade unions have blocked highways and lobbied for early parliamentary elections.

So far the harshest reaction to the budget reforms came in February, when thousands of troops and police officers were needed to quell riots among Slovakia's impoverished Roma minority.

The unrest, the country's worst violence since World War II, was marked by looting and street fights in communities throughout the country's east. In one city, about 400 demonstrators clashed with 250 officers.

But through it all the Czech government's left-center Premier Vladimir Spidla and Slovakia's right-center Premier Mikulas Dzurinda have vowed to stay the course of budget reforms right through EU enlargement. Both are counting on enlargement to boost their economies with more jobs, foreign investment, tourism and exports.

The leaders can indeed point to success stories that support their position.

For example, Japan's Toyota is building a car factory in the Czech Republic and Korea's Hyundai recently picked Slovakia for a similar plant. Tourism is soaring in the Czech Republic, and Slovakia's government debt is falling.

Aside from the Slovak presidential race, the negative reactions to EU-linked budget reforms have yet to affect the leaders steering these former communist countries into the EU.

And if this spring's unease eventually passes with the season, Czechs and Slovaks will be ready to settle for the changes that they endorsed with last year's EU referendum.

Government leaders like Spidla seem confident that the negativity will be short-lived. At a recent political rally he declared: "Just look around and see the force, because we are the force that will bring the Czech Republic into the European Union."
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