Roundup: EU Sees Its Biggest Ever Expansion

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, December 14, 2002

Roundup: EU Sees Its Biggest Ever Expansion

Leaders from the European Union (EU) on Friday signed an agreement on expanding the 15-nation bloc by 10 members in 2004 to erase the dividing lines in the continent in a half century.

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Leaders from the European Union (EU) on Friday signed an agreement on expanding the 15-nation bloc by 10 members in 2004 to erase the dividing lines in the continent in a half century.

"Today is a great moment for Europe," said Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the landmark summit.

"This achievement testifies to common determination of the peoples of Europe to come together in a Union that has become the driving force for peace, democracy, stability and prosperity on our continent," said Rasmussen, whose country holds the EU presidency.

The 10 countries seeking EU membership are Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus and Malta.

The enlargement talks, which was supposed to conclude by the Copenhagen summit after nearly four years hard bargaining, came to a standstill two months ago when most candidates were dismayed that their farmers won't get aid at the same level as their richer western neighbors until 2013.

To break the deadlock, the EU's Danish presidency announced late on Thursday a sweeter funding package for the candidates, worth a total of some 40 billion euros (about 41 billion US dollars) over a period of the three years.

The new funding deal offers the 10 candidates about 1.5 billioneuros (about 1.6 billion dollars) more than a previous package approved in October.

After most of the candidates signaled their willingness to accept the EU's entry conditions ahead of the summit, Poland, the largest of the states seeking membership, still hold out for an even more generous offer.

Denmark once warned that Poland's accession might be delayed for several years. A last-minute horse-trading, however, helped Poland back on the track of enlargement.

Under the final financial package agreed by EU members and candidates, the EU will pay 40.83 billion euros (about 42 billion dollars) over the 2004-2006 period in farm and other subsidies for the new member states.

Rasmussen, who had been trying hard to ensure EU Copenhagen summit a success, said the results already achieved in these negotiations would not be brought into question.

The leaders of the 10 candidate nations and the 15 EU states would meet in Athens, Greece, next April for a formal ceremony, he added.

The European community has expanded four times since six core nations - Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands - agreed to place their coal and steel production under a single, supranational authority in 1951.

Until now, the expansion has been an incremental affair. In previous enlargements - in 1973, 1981, 1986 and 1995 - the union took on just three, one, two and three new members, respectively.

But the EU enlargement will not stop in 2004. The next expansion round will bring in Bulgaria and Romania - due in 2007. Waiting in the wings are Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania. And then there's Turkey, a decades-long EU aspirant.

At this summit, Turkey was also given a conditional date for starting membership talks. EU leaders said the EU would review Turkey's political criteria in December 2004 and open the entry talks as soon as possible on condition that Turkey passes the review.

Though Turkish government, who has been insisting on a 2003 start, was a little disappointed about the EU's offer, it had to bow to the fact that many European are not prepared to admit a mainly Muslim country into this Christian club.

Under the enlargement being pondered by the EU so far, the EU may absorb up to a dozen or more new members in less than 10 years. It is a move that would stretch its landmass by a third and swell its population by more than 100 million people, to almost half a billion.

European Commission President Prodi said, "For the first time in history Europe will become one because unification is the free will of its people."

The referendum of the accession treaty, to be held next year in all 10 candidates, will testify the true will of the European people.

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