Internal wrangling won't delay expansion, says EU commissioner
The European Union today assured Turkey and Balkan nations that the EU’s internal crisis should not delay its commitments to bring in new members.
“The EU was founded on the principle that … sticking to one’s word is a basic value,” said Olli Rehn, the EU commissioner overseeing the expansion plans.
He said that meant Bulgaria and Romania should join the EU as planned in 2007 if they fulfil the EU’s conditions.
The EU’s enlargement plans also foresee the start of membership talks with Turkey in October and with Croatia once it improves co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
Rehn said it was important the EU does not back away from longer-term preparations to start membership talks with other Balkan nations, insisting the prospect of EU membership helped bolster stability in a region only recently wracked by war.
“It would be irresponsible to disrupt a valuable process that is helping to build stable and effective partners in the most unstable parts of Europe,” Rehn said.
Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Serbia-Montenegro are all seeking to join the EU, but are yet to start negotiating with the bloc on accession.
Recent referendums in France and the Netherlands against the EU constitution showed many western Europeans are concerned about further expansion of the EU, which took on 10 new members last year, mostly former communist states from eastern Europe.
Rehn appealed for politicians to reassure the public. “It is up to every responsible politician to calm the overheated debate,” he said. “Enlargement has been a huge success in ensuring stability and growing prosperity.”
However, he warned Romania and Bulgaria he was prepared to postpone their membership if they fail to implement essential reforms before they scheduled entry on January 1, 2007.
Turkey’s opening of membership talks on October 3 is conditional on it extending an existing agreement with the EU to include Cyprus – one of the nations that joined the bloc in May last year.
The EU has delayed membership talks with Croatia because a fugitive former general wanted by the war crimes tribunal remains at large.
