GERMANY: Three countries in 10 minutes: that was how the leaders of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic celebrated EU enlargement near the eastern German town of Zittau where the countries' borders coincide.
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder joined his Czech and Polish counterparts, Mr Vladimir Spidla and Mr Leszek Miller, to raise the European flag over the former outer wall of the EU, now the meeting point of three EU nations, to the sound of Beethoven's Ode To Joy, the EU anthem.
"Those who lived through World War two and its aftermath would not have thought this possible 60 years ago," said Mr Schröder.
Mr Spidla said enlargement had brought an end to the "the old Europe of xenophobia and war" and given birth to a new Europe of "peace and unity". Mr Miller said: "Our Polish dream came true today."
They were joined by Mr Günther Verheugen, the Enlargement Commissioner, who addressed his speech to the "European citizens" listening in each of the three countries behind borders "which no longer play a role". Mr Verheugen said accession would always be associated with Mr Miller, the outgoing Polish prime minister, because he had the most difficult task of convincing his people; and with Mr Spidla, for selling the EU to the Czechs, the "most sceptical people in Europe".
The politicians then departed Zittau and flew together to the official ceremonies in Dublin while the party in the border area continued all weekend. Just hours after accession, simple market economics had already had a noticeable effect on trade. The German side got noticeably emptier as the day wore on as people piled over to Poland and the Czech Republic for half-litres of beer at €1 a go.
Among the crowd were a large number of expelled Germans, like Ms Ingeborg Hinke, a sprightly 83-year-old who remembered the day she was forced to leave her home in German territories east of the Neisse River when the land became part of Poland after the second World War.
"They came and gave us one and a half hours to leave," she said. "From one day to the next we were poor as beggars but that's all the past now. Today I could weep with happiness."
Reinhard Wolf (72) was born in Breslau, today the Polish city of Wroclaw, and still remembers the day in 1947 when he was sent from school to the train and expelled.
"At the train station, the Poles grabbed the last of what we had in our hands. It's hard to forget," he said. "I still go back to Breslau all the time and can speak Polish. But I can't be 100 per cent happy about something when we don't know how it is going to end up."
Younger people at the celebrations were, without exception, all hugely enthusiastic for enlargement, seeing it as their chance to travel and eventually work elsewhere in Europe.
"Older people are distrustful because of their past. They were never taught how to be ready for change," said Mr Ivan Sopolov, a Czech doctoral student.
Meanwhile Mr Miller stepped down as prime minister in Warsaw yesterday, as announced a month ago, after falling victim to a series of scandals and a dramatic split among his ruling Democratic Left party (SLD).
His successor, Prof Marek Belka, an economics professor and one-time finance minister, faces huge challenges: a confidence motion in parliament within two weeks, the implementation of a painful €11 billion austerity package and likely early elections in the autumn or spring.