As scheduled, 10 new members will be formally admitted into the European Union on May 1, a historic event that undoubtedly will have profound impact on Eropean integration as it raises questions surrounding challenges and benefits for its existing 15 members.

After four enlargements since 1973, the EU now brings Cyprus, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia to live in one big family with Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Switzerland and Finland, as well as the six founding members of Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

For the 25-nation bloc that will embrace a total area of about 4.5 million square kilometers and a population of about 453 million, some analysts expect a bright future and believe the existing members would benefit from a more competitive and diverseSingle Market in the European Union.

"The upcoming EU enlargement is very exciting for Europe. It will bring a large number of new countries into the European family, it will create a stronger economic bloc and I think it would go even further," Eric Joyce, a British Labor MP and parliamentary private secretary to the minister of state for foreign affairs, trade and investment, said in an interview with Xinhua.

With new members from central, eastern and southern Europe coming in, "trade will be made freer and freer, and (immigrants from those countries) would make our society more vibrant... (and)that makes every country better off, "Joyce said, echoing some expectation that immigration could ease the expected shortages in the EU labor markets and bring new dynamism to the current member states.

"It is a good thing because if you compare it with what it was like more than 10 years ago, it is really an amazing achievement,"Dr. Christopher R Hughes of the London School of Economics and Political Science told Xinhua.

Some analysts have even pointed out the political and economic benefits of this current process years ago.

"In the first place, it will make Europe a safer place for its citizen and thereby contribute to the stability in the world. We should not forget that it is only 20 years ago that nuclear missiles were deployed on both sides of the East-West divide. In economic terms, it will offer opportunities by opening up new markets for both the existing members and the new comers," said Raymond van der Putten, Euro zone economist at BNP Paribas in Paris.

Yet, in the eyes of other analysts, the current process, which differs from previous ones by admitting 10 members at one time andleading to an entirely new geopolitical entity made up of different religions and cultures, is not without problems.

"For the old members, it creates more anxiety than hope... Existing members fear both the competitiveness of the accession countries and... floods of immigrants from them," Martin Wolf wrote for the British Financial Times newspaper in an article examining the consequences of the enlargement.

Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic, has acknowledged that financial challenges awaiting the western Europeans would come from the structural funds and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

"The wealth gap will create tensions over finance. The new members will want to ensure that they get their fair share of regional aid and support for farmers, which together make up 80 percent of the budget. But those countries that currently do well out of the system, such as Spain, will be reluctant to see the money tap redirected. And the net payers into the system, in particular Germany, the Netherlands and Britain, will be wary of making expensive commitments," Havel said in an article published by the British Economist magazine earlier this year.

Another hottest political potato associated with the enlargement is migration, analysts admitted. Fears have been expressed by various states such as Germany, Austria and the Scandinavian countries that the enlargement could lead to a new inflow of immigrants attracted by substantial higher wages in western EU countries.

And as the current members welcome the lower prices and the opportunity for their companies to address global competition by locating labor-intensive production in neighboring countries with low wages, it is inevitable that citizens of current members wouldraise their concern over job losses, analysts argued.

"We have to recognize that some people will be defeated by highlabor mobility. Some people's job would be displaced...we have toensure that there will be appropriate program to raise their skills so the unemployment remain very low," Joyce said.

"Which steps should we take towards migration within Europe andalso from outside Europe, I guess that would be very important," said Joyce.

Although it is not yet clear how the new member states would impact the EU dealings, some experts even feared that the growing diversity, in combination with the large number of member states in the union, makes it increasingly difficult to satisfy the need for a common EU policy, which major EU members such as France and Germany are promoting.

"It would be very difficult to try to integrate the political and economic conditions when it dissolves to 25 countries. Europe now has come to a very critical phase where some decisions have tobe made," Geoffrey Goodman, founding editor of British journalism Review, expressed his worries in the interview.

"The integration will take place, but it will take a long time"in consideration of the differences between the new and current members, Finnish Ambassador to Britain Pertti Salolainen told a meeting on Monday at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, while expressing his worry that it may be difficult forEU members to reach an agreement on the proposed EU constitution aimed at streamlining EU decision making after May 1.

In his article, Havel even expected the formation of ad hoc coalition on specific issues, with the new members probably finding common cause on matters of finance and the birth of a variety of coalitions involving both new and old member states.

"While some of the divisions within the EU will see the new members against old, the enlargement of the Union will also createthe opportunity for some new alliance. The British will be lookingto the central Europeans, and the Poles in particular, to join them in supporting the idea that NATO should remain unchallenged as Europe's principal security club. The French, Germans and Belgians will try to push ahead with their idea of a more autonomous European defense," Havel said, warning that the question of how to handle America would call for efforts to forge a common European foreign policy.

It is not wise for the current members to exaggerate the positive or the negative aspects of such a process interwoven withchances and challenges, analysts agreed. The EU is changing for good and all its members have to realize that "painful" concessionis needed to ensure a smooth EU development.

Just as Joyce said: "There will be 25 countries with different traditions. That would be a very big challenge...(to deal with that) we have to harmonize."

Source: Xinhua