- (AFP) -- The European Commission recommended the entry
of 10 countries into the EU by 2004 in a historic enlargement that will
for the first time see the continent freely united.
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- Thirteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the
EU's executive arm gave the green light Wednesday for a reshaping of the
15-member bloc that will take it up to the borders of Russia.
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- Barring last-minute hitches -- including a Irish referendum
later this month which in theory could derail the whole project -- the
new members will join in time for European parliament elections in 2004.
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- The commission, in detailed assessment reports on the
candidate countries, recommended the entry of Cyprus, the Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
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- But the report failed to give Turkey, a close US ally
and NATO member, a date to start negotiations for entry while two poorer
Balkan countries, Romania and Bulgaria, were cited as possible entrants
in 2007.
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- "Enlargement is our political masterpiece because
it will enable us to avoid all that. The cost of enlargement is nothing
to the cost of non-enlargement," Commission president Romano Prodi
told the European parliament.
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- Prodi acknowledged doubts about the entrance of the new
members, mostly impoverished countries that are heavily reliant on farming.
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- "It is no secret that the accession of these 10
countries will cost an enormous amount of money," he said.
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- "But enlargement should not be seen only in economic
terms. It is above all an ethical and political process," Prodi said,
pointing to the recent grisly history of the Balkans.
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- The commission's proposals will form the basis for a
political decision on EU enlargement expected by the end of the year.
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- EU leaders will meet in Brussels on October 24-25 to
discuss the recommendations, setting the stage for a December 12-13 summit
in Copenhagen at which formal invitations will be extended.
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- But obstacles still remain even on the final straight
of the EU candidate states' long and winding path towards joining the bloc.
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- These include notably the new Irish referendum on October
19 on the 2000 Nice Treaty, which is crucial for EU enlargement to go ahead
in 2004.
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- Ireland sent shock waves through Europe in June last
year when, in a first referendum, the 2000 Nice treaty on enlargement was
rejected by 54 percent of voters.
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- "There's no plan B" if Ireland snubs the treaty
again, admitted Commission spokesman Jonathan Faull, adding that an Irish
no vote would "create a situation of uncertainty, disarray".
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- "But I do not want to predict the unpredictable,"
he said.
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- The EU has pressed ahead with enlargement despite a number
of nagging worries over the ability of the new countries to cope with EU
standards -- notably for lack of funds.
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- The cost of enlargement is a massive 40 billion euros
(dollars) between 2004 and 2006, according to the commission.
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- In 2001 the average gross domestic product per head of
population in the candidate countries was only half that of the current
EU average.
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- Of all the costs of expansion, the financing of agriculture
has posed the biggest problem for the EU.
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- The bloc is already struggling to reform its own farming
subsidy system, and negotiations on the issue are likely to continue down
to the wire with a number of heavily agricultural candidate states.
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- The candidates must also improve their administrative
and judicial systems, as well as tackle corruption "and the shameful
phenomenon of trafficking in human beings", Prodi said.
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- Human rights is a major area of concern dogging Turkey's
long-running bid to join the EU.
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- The Commission report praised Ankara's recent reforms,
including giving more rights to ethnic Kurds and abolishing the death penalty.
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- "However, a further effort is necessary," Prodi
said, while pledging to double EU financial aid to Turkey by 2006.
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