STORY: EDITOR’S NOTE: REFILING STORY AHEAD OF EU PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS, VISUALS AND TEXT HAVE NOT BEEN CHANGED.
“My name is Kevin Kaldalu. I am from Estonia.”
“My name is Julia Klimkiewicz. I am 19 years old. I am from Poland.”
“I am Damian. I come from Poland.”
“My name is Rozalie Vorlova, I am 20 years old, I live in the Czech Republic and I am a student.”
:: 2004
Twenty years ago in 2004, most of Central and Eastern Europe joined the European Union.
Today the bloc is made up of 27 nations and almost 450 million people.
On this 20th anniversary, Reuters spoke with young adults about the EU’s impact on their lives and their vision for its future ahead of European Parliament elections in June.
:: Warsaw, Poland
In the Polish capital city of Warsaw, 19-year-old Julia Klimkiewicz embraces the opportunities she says the EU has provided her.
::Julia Klimkiewicz / Student, local council member
“I see the possibilities the European Union gives me because I was born in the European Union and I can travel freely across the EU, I can go on foreign student exchanges as part of the Erasmus program.”
:: Prague, Czech Republic
Czech student Rozalie Vorlova echoes that sentiment.
:: Rozalie Vorlova, Sudent
“I have relatively young parents, so our views on the EU are very similar. And I see better travel, the possibility of studying abroad, a better environment in the Czech Republic and more work opportunities as advantages of EU membership.”
:: Luka, Poland
Meanwhile in the Polish countryside, 19-year-old farmer Damian Krajza points out the unequal treatment Eastern European countries receive from the EU, particularly in terms of agricultural subsidies.
::Damian Krajza / Farmer, local politician
“Eastern Europe is being treated in a different way by the European Union, and unfortunately you can see on the international stage that we don’t have as strong a say and we are being treated differently. For so many years direct subsidies to farmers were supposed to be equal, but it hasn’t been done yet. Western countries still have higher subsidies.”
He says he’s also concerned about the EU’s environmental policy, saying it could undermine the bloc’s economy.
The EU has pledged to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“We will destroy the economy, our economy, our industry, our heavy industry and agriculture in favor of pseudo-ecology.”
:: Tallinn, Estonia
Kevin Kaldalu is a young entrepreneur based in Estonia, a country recognized for its vibrant startup scene.
He praises the EU for providing grants that help companies explore different technologies.
:: Kevin Kaldalu, Co-founder of BoxBox
“We get a lot of different grants as well that help companies actually push it further and try out different technologies. And what we think of it on the bigger scale is that it’s giving smaller countries and smaller companies the chance to really take risks and expand and try out different (things), either it’s tech or deep tech, it has an effect on the whole, the European Union.”
:: Ahti Heinla, Co-founder of Starship Technologies
Fellow entrepreneur Ahti Heinla also says the unified EU market has enabled startups to think internationally from day one.
But he also acknowledges freedom of movement can be a double-edged sword.
“I think there has been great benefit from it, but some countries have benefited disproportionately and some countries have lost disproportionately. Like, you know, for Eastern European countries in particular, there has been quite a lot of people moving from these countries to the more central and Western Europe.”
The young people also spoke about their hopes as well as fears ahead of the EU Parliament elections in June, when many of them will be able to vote for the first time.
“I think that the future of the European Union is focused around the target of building a clever migration policy.
But also around reinforcing the European army. After the war in Ukraine started, we saw how naive a solution it is to rely solely and exclusively on NATO.”