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10 nations to get EU nod but no date for Turkey
Brussels, Oct 05: The European Commission will next week recommend that 10 ex-Soviet and Mediterranean countries join the European Union in 2004, but keep Turkey out for now, an official has said.
Brussels, Oct 05: The European Commission will next week recommend that 10 ex-Soviet and Mediterranean countries join the European Union in 2004, but keep Turkey out for now, an official has said.
The EU executive arm will next Wednesday recommend the entry of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, the EU source said.
Turkey shrugged off indications that Brussels will recommend that its long-running bid to join the European Union remain on the backburner.
The European Commission was not in a position to decide when to start EU accession negotiations for turkey because this was a political decision, Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said in Brussels.
Meanwhile in Warsaw, press reports said the Brussels Commission remained concerned at the slow progress of reform in Poland even though it intended to embrace it as part of planned new memberships. According to a confidential document obtained by the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, Brussels was seriously concerned by the slow progress in Poland's restructuring of its agriculture sector and in its fight against corruption.
And in Athens, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said the EU would be plunged into an unprecedented crisis if Ireland again voted no in a referendum on the key treaty authorizing the entry of new members.
In its final appraisal reports on applicants before an EU summit in December, the EU Commission would also urge the 10 hopefuls to keep up the pace of reform ahead of EU membership in two years. Bureau Report
The EU executive arm will next Wednesday recommend the entry of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, the EU source said.
Turkey shrugged off indications that Brussels will recommend that its long-running bid to join the European Union remain on the backburner.
The European Commission was not in a position to decide when to start EU accession negotiations for turkey because this was a political decision, Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said in Brussels.
Meanwhile in Warsaw, press reports said the Brussels Commission remained concerned at the slow progress of reform in Poland even though it intended to embrace it as part of planned new memberships. According to a confidential document obtained by the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, Brussels was seriously concerned by the slow progress in Poland's restructuring of its agriculture sector and in its fight against corruption.
And in Athens, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said the EU would be plunged into an unprecedented crisis if Ireland again voted no in a referendum on the key treaty authorizing the entry of new members.
In its final appraisal reports on applicants before an EU summit in December, the EU Commission would also urge the 10 hopefuls to keep up the pace of reform ahead of EU membership in two years. Bureau Report