SALZBURG SALZBURG, Sept 16 (Hina) - The postponement to expand the European Union would seriously threaten the credibility of the fifteen and would be exceptionally dangerous, the European commissioner for the Union's expansion,
Guenther Verheugen said in Salzburg on Monday.
SALZBURG, Sept 16 (Hina) - The postponement to expand the European
Union would seriously threaten the credibility of the fifteen and
would be exceptionally dangerous, the European commissioner for
the Union's expansion, Guenther Verheugen said in Salzburg on
Monday. #L#
Verheugen spoke at a plenary session of the European Economic
Summit dedicated to the Union's expansion and attended by the
presidents of Austria, Finland, Rumania, Estonia and the Ukraine
and the Premiers of Slovenia, Serbia and Bulgaria.
Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek, whose country will in the
next few months be concluding negotiations on its admission into
the EU, agreed that any postponement to expand the EU at this moment
would be a fatal mistake. Member countries should not be afraid of
new countries, he added.
The problems that Brussels is currently facing, Verheugen
estimated, are the question of the Kalingrad enclave when
neighbouring countries become EU members, Ireland's non-
acceptance of the Nice Treaty and the question of the division of
Cyprus. Apart from that, the EU representative stressed that it was
vital that leaders in EU member countries explain to their citizens
the advantages and risks of accepting new members. The aspirants,
he added, at the moment when it is decided to accept them, will not
be fully prepared but we need to believe that they will fulfil the
required obligations in the set period.
The session on the expansion of the EU was the focal point of the
economic summit with about 600 participants which began on Monday
in Salzburg. Along with the heads of states and government, various
ministers, MPs, leading business figures, representatives of
various international organisations, experts in various fields and
non-government organisations are participating in the work of the
event.
Following speeches by Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov and
Rumanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, who expressed their
countries' aspirations to enter the Brussels club, Verheugen
emphasised that the process of the EU's expansion was irreversible
and would not be wrapped up with the reception of the first round of
the aspirants.
Objecting to a statement by Serbia's Premier Zoran Djindjic who
said that everybody could pay a high price for the lack of any
European prospects in Serbia, Verheugen emphasised that the EU
could not possibly consider accepting countries like Serbia or the
Ukraine until at least the completion of the first round of
expansion.
Croatian President Stjepan Mesic who arrived in Salzburg on Monday
afternoon did not participate in the discussion on the EU's
expansion due to his busy schedule in Zagreb earlier in the day.
(hina) sp ms sb