Does Eastern Europe Still Exist? By Professor Anne Applebaum

Eastern Europe is mostly used as a political term to define those countries who were under Soviet control, such as being a satellite state, prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. However, when this collapse occurred all these countries were no longer under control and they took very different approaches at reforms. This lecture by Professor Applebaum, provided a sound argument on whether eastern Europe still exists, both economically and metaphorically.

Firstly, when one thinks of eastern Europe with counties like Poland and Hungary, they imagine poor and unstable economies with low living standards and in desperate need of western Europe’s help. However, it is clearly apparent that this view held for the last twenty years is now completely false, as was demonstrated with the Great Recession of 2008. Professor Applebaum accurately revealed that in fact it was Iceland that was first hit by the recession, possibly the furthest western country of Europe. Furthermore, eastern European countries were mildly affected by the recession and some not at all, for example Poland which has had staggering figures of continuous growth since the 1990s. 

The common belief, prior to the Great Recession, was that eastern European countries would be the first to collapse and that the western countries would have to help, to prevent a Eurozone Crisis. However, the exact opposite has occurred with most of the western European countries on the brink of collapse, with eastern European countries helping. It is now obvious that the people who a few years ago greatly criticised EU enlargement, were incorrect, as if the enlargement never occurred, then the Eurozone crisis would have taken place much sooner, with drastic consequences, as Professor Applebaum revealed.

The reasons behind the success of these eastern European countries and the failure of most of the western European countries is difficult to decipher. However, one argument that Professor Applebaum pointed out was that they paid little into bonds, whereas other western European countries did not, instead countries like Greece and Spain paid up to 8-10% in forms of bonds, whereas their eastern European counterparts where doing about half. However, this is just one reason behind why eastern European countries are becoming prosperous. 

The graph below shows the growth rates of most, if not all, European countries. It was produced by the Ministry of Treasury of Poland. It clearly demonstrates the true extent to which eastern Europe was overtaking western Europe. However, upon close analysis, it is evident that not all of eastern Europe is experiencing this prosperity that their neighbours have been, such as Slovenia.

To conclude, this lecture presented by Professor Anne Applebaum was interesting and offered another opinion on these rising economies. Perhaps it is time for us, as Professor Applebaum suggested, to stop having these stereotypes and old cliches about eastern Europe, because in fact western Europe should learn from the failures and successes of eastern Europe.