“I know they will come in,” you quote a German Christian Democrat in the European Parliament on Western Balkans, “but they must come in a better state than Bulgaria and Romania, or they will weaken the Union” (“A Slow March to Europe,” December 12, 2009). Such sentiments are surely shared with many Europeans, but two things must be remembered when they are uttered. To begin with, Bulgaria and Romania were accepted in the Union in 2007 for geopolitical reasons rather than because they feigned being in a good state. The Union closed off its eastern flank at a cost. Most important, there are dire consequences for not letting in the countries from the Western Balkans, which are now in the hands of assorted mafias forever vying for primacy. The longer these countries have to wait for accession, the poorer their state will become. Mafias will see to that. After the accession of Bulgaria and Romania, the remaining Balkan countries are in the Union at least geographically, and they must be helped to enter it in every other sense of the word. Without wholehearted and generous assistance, the hapless region will only keep weakening the Union even from, as it were, outside.