EU set for 'big bang' enlargement

2001-11-13 17:10

Brussels - Ten eastern European and mediterranean countries were to be told on Tuesday they are on track to join the European Union in a "big bang" enlargement of the bloc in 2004, EU sources said.

Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Cyprus and Malta were to get the upbeat assessment of their EU membership negotiations in annual progress reports from the European Commission.

The reports - on a total of 13 candidate countries - were to be officially released by the EU's Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen at the European Parliament in Strasbourg at 4pm.

The news will be less optimistic for two other candidate countries, Romania and Bulgaria, the most impoverished of the candidate family.

They will be told, according to the sources, that they are lagging too far behind in negotiations to bring their economic, social and legal criteria up to EU standards in time to join the EU in the first wave.

Turkey, a case apart...

Under the EU's ambitious eastern enlargement plan, the bloc will eventually almost double in size to 28 countries, creating a zone of 500 million people stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Black Sea.

Turkey, a case apart, was given official candidate status at the Helsinki summit in December 1999 but has not yet begun negotiations. That move was conditioned on Turkey first meeting basic EU criteria on democracy, human rights and the rule of law, which it has yet to do.

The sources said the candidate countries will be told in Tuesday's reports that they still have a lot of work to do before crossing the threshold, especially in creating the administrative structures that will allow them to implement the thousands of pages of EU law.

The 10 front-runners will be told they have viable market economies, but with substantial economic differences among them that should be reconciled if they stick to measures detailed in previous progress reports.

Strengthen economies

They will be told, said the sources, that their economies will need to be strengthened in the short term to be able to face up to the EU's competition and internal market forces.

The two mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta will be told they are ahead of their former communist bloc partners in fitting in with EU standards.

And Poland, largest candidate country with 38 million people, will be warned it needs to pick up the speed of its economic reforms before entry.

EU leaders have chosen the 2004 target date for the enlargement because it will coincide with the next European Parliament elections. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA