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Opinion
October 13, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
more with less funding — this is the big question,” Pavlova put it simply.
And the loss of funding is a worry, especially for the poorer member states in the southeastern corner of the EU. The latest Eurostat data show that de- spite convergence in recent years — and Romania’s GDP growth is currently the fastest in the bloc — GDP per capital is still hovering at around half the EU28 average in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania.
At the Aspen Forum, there was a generally posi- tive sense that the EU — which looked at the start
of 2017 as if it might not make it through the year — is now starting to emerge from the migration and Brexit referendum crises. Yet big decisions are coming up, and much remains cloudy about the future of the union.
Estonia’s Maasikas made a good job of summa- rising the situation, talking of a renewed sense
of unity. “The Brexit vote made us all think about what is the glue, the mood is much better now.” However, he added, “The big debates on the future of Europe are still only starting.”
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