New Europe (political expression)

This article is about the political term. For New Europe Newspaper, see New Europe (newspaper). For the Michael Palin television series, see Michael Palin's New Europe. For the accompanying book, see New Europe (book).

President George W. Bush and Slovakia’s Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda are greeted by a crowd of thousands gathered in Bratislava's Hviezdoslavovo Square (February 2005).

New Europe is a rhetorical term used by conservative political analysts in the United States to describe European post-Communist era countries in Central Europe. The "newness" of these countries refers not to the length of time they have been independent, but to the fact that they have only recently acquired or re-acquired the status of capitalist democracies.

"New European" countries were originally distinguished by their governments' support of the 2003 war in Iraq, as opposed to an "Old Europe" noted as unsupportive of that war. Even initially, the term was not based solely on this fact. The governments of several other countries, such as the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and Spain also supported the war, but are not commonly conceived as belonging to a New Europe. It is also worthy to note that while New Europe countries did not experience protests on the scale seen in Old Europe, neither was the support for operation in Iraq a major issue in their internal politics.

See also

• Eastern Europe
• Central Europe
• Central and Eastern Europe
• East-Central Europe
• Pan-European identity
• Euroscepticism
• The letter of the eight
• The Vilnius letter
• European NAvigator
• New Europe (newspaper)
• New_Order_(Nazism)

External links

• Article from Slate