It was a historic day on 1 May 2004 that my country, along with 9 others (and another 3 in the subsequent years) joined the European Union. It wasn't about funds, regional policy, competition law rules or job prospects. All of those are important, but the most important is the *idea* of the European Union. That countries like mine and so many others will be anchored to what we might call "West", or "liberal democracy", a certain way of doing politics/policies that has proven to maximize human well-being on a societal scale. It's often inefficient, bureaucratic, slow, annoying and falls short of expectations. But it's still the only way forward. Its raison d'être should never be called into question while it should be constructively criticised and improved every single day. #iloveEU