Evolving Europe

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Revelers across ex-communist eastern Europe celebrated their historic entry to the European Union on Saturday amid scattered protests by demonstrators decrying a loss of national sovereignty.

The overall jubilation differed sharply from May Days under communism, when people were forced to march in parades carrying banners of Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin and Soviet flags and listen to dreary speeches by party apparatchiks.

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel, the playwright who led the Velvet Revolution that ended communist rule in 1989, said enlargement would help his countrymen become "self-confident citizens of Europe."

Czechs awoke Saturday as members of a bloc "that is not a result of wars, that is not based on the violent domination of some over others, but which was born, evolves, strengthens and expands out of the free will of European nations," Havel said.

The EU swelled from 15 nations to 25 by taking in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, along with the Mediterranean nations of Cyprus and Malta. Together, they boost the EU's population to 450 million.

Ireland, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, kicked off a "Day of Welcomes" with festivities ranging from Slovak folk dancing in Cork to a Hungarian poetry reading in Sligo to a banquet of eastern European delicacies in the streets of Dublin.

Spirits were high across most of the region, where hundreds of thousands were celebrating their countries' return to the European mainstream 15 years after shaking off communism.

In Hungary, the government served breakfast on Budapest's signature Chain Bridge for 500 children born on May 1 since Hungary returned to democracy in 1990.

Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy compared the relationship between Hungary and the EU to a marriage, with its initial illusions and moments of pain and discord.

"We are confident it will be a marriage worth living for," he said.

Zsuzsa Antal, 28, who strolled with her family along the Danube River, said, "It's a psychological confidence booster. I really do feel special -- like we Hungarians are now just as European as anyone else."

Thousands of people in Prague attended concerts held on 10 islands in the Vltava River to symbolize the 10 EU newcomer nations.

"We are not entering Europe because we have always been there -- even at times of utmost oppression. We are entering the EU," Czech President Vaclav Klaus said.

In Poland, President Aleksander Kwasniewski repeatedly wiped tears from his eyes as an orchestra played the national and EU anthems before breakfast for 2,000 guests in the gardens of Warsaw's Royal Castle, the former seat of Polish kings.

But not everyone was celebrating.

About 1,200 Poles participated in a demonstration organized by a nationalist party which contends the country has forfeited its sovereignty by joining the EU.

"You have served the Soviets and now you will serve Brussels," party leader Roman Giertych said in a mock address to the president, referring to the Belgian location of EU headquarters.

Czech anarchists staged a subdued protest in the capital, Prague -- a tradition every May 1, a worldwide Labor Day workers' holiday. They hoisted banners that read, "Nothing above the nation," but the gathering was small and no violence was reported.

In the divided nation of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots in the south packed town squares for concerts by local choirs and European folkloric dance troupes. The island's Turks, who control the north, effectively were shut out of the EU after Greeks rejected a U.N. reunification plan.

The union's laws and benefits will apply only to the internationally recognized south.

Eleni Ioannou, a Greek Cypriot housewife, said she hoped that "by joining the big united European family, the wall dividing our country will also disappear -- and Greek and Turkish Cypriots can live together like the other Europeans."

In Estonia, thousands of volunteers celebrated by launching a campaign to plant 1 million trees.

"The trees have significance as they represent a living history. For Estonia, trees symbolize continuity," said John Kjaer, a local EU official.

The EU's enlargement chief, Guenter Verheugen, spent part of Saturday criss-crossing an area where the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland meet.

"We've crossed so many borders this morning that I'm not sure right now what country I'm in," Verheugen said. "But we have reached a point where the borders that once divided us no longer matter."