Addressing the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Rehn spoke about a further enlargement strategy, a document that the European commission published two weeks ago.
Answering a deputy's question what would happen if the EU failed to adopt a new institutional framework by the time the next country was ready to join the bloc, Rehn said he did not wish to speculate, adding that one must believe that progress in that area could be made and consensus reached by 2008.