European Community, European Union 1229production within the member states. As part of the common agricultural
policy, EU subsidies to farmers accounted for nearly half of the annual
budget in 1995. Subsidies have protected member states by limiting the
importation of products from outside the EU, but they also have generated
overproduction, such that many farmers are paid not to produce, or for the
surpluses they produce. Besides this, considerable European Union funds
are diverted in the attempt to aid the continual development of the poorer
member states, including Greece and Portugal, and disadvantaged regions
within other countries, such as southern Italy and Sicily. For example, the
admission of Poland requires sizeable subsidies for Polish agriculture,
which in terms of efficiency lags considerably behind its Western counter
parts, despite a booming economy in the first decade of the new century.
In the meantime, the European Union maintains strict guidelines for agri
cultural producers (for example, on how cheese can be produced). An infu
sion of funds from the European Union has brought new roads and other
benefits to new members. Beginning in December 2007 when borders
were opened between nine new member states, one could travel from Esto
nia to Portugal without being stopped at any border, leaving some national
authorities to worry whether such openness might aid illegal immigration
and organized crime.
The problem of how the European Union can create a sense of legiti
macy within the member states remains daunting. The institutions of the
EU have to wrestle with the enormous challenge of creating a cultural
Irish farmers clog the streets of Dublin with their tractors to protest the reforms
proposed by the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union that would