That Ireland should be seen as a development model for many of the 13 states that have been accepted officially as candidates to join the European Union comes as a surprise to many Irish people. Opinion polls show public attitudes here towards enlarging the EU to be among the least enthusiastic in the existing 15 member-states, partly because the prospect still seems so distant, but also because it seems to threaten Irish interests - as in agriculture and structural funding.
A series of reports in this newspaper from the accession states has made it clear that this negative response to EU enlargement is too simplistic and in several respects seriously misleading. Ireland's relative success in developing by using EU funds and access to the European single market has created a series of opportunities for this State to build up its economic and political relationship with the candidates.
Already this has been seen in significant Irish investments in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, for example. Trade with central and eastern Europe has mushroomed, though from a low base. A growing number of Irish people are involved in the new service industries and in advisory capacities. A significant transfer of labour intensive employment towards these states has been generally a function of Ireland moving up the value and productivity chains, rather than suffering a net loss of employment.
Seen from this perspective the positive elements increasingly outweigh the ostensibly negative ones. Ireland has insisted that enlargement must not compromise existing commitments under the Common Agricultural Policy. This presents tricky problems of whether and how to extend price support to Polish and other farmers in states where agriculture occupies a greater role in their economies. But compromises will be found; Ireland maintains an interest with the accession states in ensuring that sufficient resources are kept in place to fund a common system. The same argument applies to structural and cohesion funding - even as State becomes a net contributor to EU finances. Some sectors are more exposed to these issues than others, but national policy should recognise that increasingly the positive outweighs the negative.
Most of the candidate states are small and medium sized, with a similar history of achieving independence from imperial powers as Ireland's. They are interested in how this State has been able to use EU membership to reduce dependence on a large and dominant neighbour. They therefore share interests with us in ensuring that the existing vital balances in the EU are maintained so as to protect the interests of smaller states - an issue currently under negotiation in the Inter-Governmental Conference to conclude at Nice in December. Seen thus, the accession states are welcome future partners. Ireland must help to overcome the development gaps they currently experience, from which we too have so recently emerged.