"Hitching a ride"? And what exactly do you mean by eastern European countries? Because, you know, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are having huge GDP growth, the Czech and Slovak Republics are doing better than most of Eurozone and Poland is going neutrally. The only eastern European country that actually is eastern European that is in the EU is Romania, and they haven't been causing economic problems.
So i'm quite baffled by posts like yours, that call for the expulsion of some specific eastern or southern European countries from the EU when there really is no reason to do it. Also, the entire point of the EU is UNITY. Kicking a country from it would TOTALLY refute the ENTIRE purpose of what the EU represents. It's like some people around here have issues realizing the EU isn't ONLY an economic union.
---------- Post added 2012-11-17 at 12:53 AM ----------
Oh, yeah, sorry, it's totally obvious, seeing how Norway, Denmark and Sweden, the most socialistic democratic countries in the world, are going down the shitter right now. Oh, wait. Yeah, they're not. They're the best countries to live in, in the entire world.