SETimes.comBarroso calls for pause in EU expansion after Bulgaria, Romania's accession
26/09/2006
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday that there should be a pause in the process of EU enlargement after Bulgaria and Romania's entry to allow the bloc to sort out its institutional and constitutional problems.
(AP, Reuters, AFP, BBC, International Herald Tribune, AKI, EUobserver, EUpolitix - 25/09/06; EurActiv - 21/09/06; Bertelsmann Foundation - 20/09/06)
The EU should not admit new members after Bulgaria and Romania before carrying out pending institutional reforms, European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday (25 September).
His statement came a day before the EC released its latest report on the two Balkan countries, recommending they be allowed to join the EU on 1 January 2007.
"It would be unwise to bring in other member states apart from Romania and Bulgaria," Barroso said at a news conference in Brussels following a meeting with French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. "We are not in a position to further integrate Europe without further institutional reform. There are some limits to our absorption capacity."
The Nice Treaty, which EU leaders agreed on in late 2000, more than two years before it entered into force in February 2003, obliges the Union to carry out institutional reform after the admission of its 27th member.
"We cannot go on enlarging without clarifying the institutional issues, voting and decision making," Barroso told reporters.
A proposed EU constitutional treaty would have helped sort out the existing problems and limitations to further enlargement, but it was put on the shelf after Dutch and French voters rejected it in separate referendums last year.
"How far can we go without rendering the EU inefficient?" de Villepin asked, echoing Barroso's call for a halt in further expansion. "We need principles on common rules before we can contemplate further stages of enlargement."
Barroso's comments regarding the constitutional treaty came months after EU leaders agreed in June to try to solve the current impasse by the end of 2008.
According to Brussels-based EUobserver, the EU commissioners for communication and for regional policy, Margot Wallstrom and Danuta Hubner, will meet with the so-called "Amato Group" on Friday for talks aimed at finding a solution to the deadlock caused by the Dutch and French "no" votes.
Meanwhile, the country that will be most affected by steps towards resolving the bloc's institutional problems is Croatia, which along with Turkey, began its EU membership talks with Brussels in October and is hoping to complete the process by 2009.
Reforms to allow an expanded EU to operate efficiently would likely imply a slight delay in Croatia's accession. Barroso, however, noted on Monday that he would like to see the country "join as quickly as possible, if it fulfils all the criteria".
Facing a long reform agenda, Turkey is not expected to complete its negotiations for at least ten years.
Other countries hoping to join the EU include Macedonia, which was granted official candidate status in 2005 but has not been given a starting date for its membership talks, as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.