Any sober appraisal of what has actually happened since expansion would put the problems in perspective: when enlargement was agreed, the combined size of the ten new members’ economies roughly equaled that of the Netherlands. Today, after five years of much stronger growth among the newcomers, their combined GNP is somewhat smaller than that of the Benelux countries.
如果对欧盟扩大以来所发生事情进行冷静的评估，我们就能正确地处理当前的问题：在欧洲各国对扩大欧盟达成共识的时候，十个欧盟新成员国的经济总量大约和荷兰的经济总量相当。现在，在这些欧盟新成员国的经济比加入欧盟之前更加强劲地增长了五年之后，它们国民生产总值的总和只比比利时、荷兰和卢森堡三国的总量稍小。