Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik has recently announced that Austria will launch a comprehensive debate on what kind of the European Union its citizens would like to live in
She has said that her country would not hurry up with the ratification of the Constitution.
So far, the document has been ratified by 13 members of the 25-member European bloc.
During Austria's presidency, i.e. in the first half of 2006, Croatia expects to open concrete negotiations on eight out of 35 chapters which are the subject of Croatia's membership talks with the EU.
Turkey, the other admission country, expects the same.
The EU is going to hold discussions on its further enlargement after the European Council granted Macedonia a candidate status on 17 December, but did not set any exact date for the start of negotiations with Skopje.
On that occasion, EU leaders said that the Union's absorption capacity as well as the opinion of EU citizens should be taken into account when planning further expansion.
Finland will take over the EU presidency in the second half of 2006.