Newsday, NY
June 21 2005
Commission: No New Enlargement Wave Seen
By JAN SLIVA
BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Commission warned Tuesday it would
postpone EU membership for Bulgaria and Romania if they failed to
introduce essential reforms, and said the European Union must ‘pace
itself’ after 10 new members joined last year.
“My message to (Romania and Bulgaria) is to fulfill the conditions of
accession to the letter,” said Olli Rehn, the EU commissioner
overseeing the expansion plans. “I hope that they will make it in
time, but I would not hesitate to recommend a postponement of their
membership.”
Romania and Bulgaria are scheduled to join Jan. 1, 2007, while
Croatia’s membership has been postponed because a fugitive former
general wanted by the war crimes tribunal remains at large.
The next wave of enlargement “isn’t just round the corner,” Rehn
said.
“We need to pace ourselves after last year’s big bang when the 10 new
states joined the union,” he told the European Parliament’s foreign
affairs committee.
Concerns over further EU expansion were believed to be one of the
reasons why French and Dutch voters rejected the EU constitution.
Turkey must maintain the momentum of its reforms if it wants to start
accession negotiations Oct. 3 and Rehn urged it to resolve a dispute
over the massacre of Armenians during World War I. Armenians say that
Ottoman Turks slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians in a planned genocide
and have demanded that Turkey recognize the killings as genocide.
“Turkey has problems tackling the truth, which is always the basis
for reconciliation,” he said.
Rehn also said it was important to prepare for membership talks with
other Balkan nations to give them a European perspective, and
insisted a long-term prospect of EU membership will help bolster
stability in a region recently wracked by war.
He spoke after Bosnia’s prime minister urged EU leaders not to stop
the enlargement process because of the current EU crisis triggered by
the disagreements over the bloc’s constitution and future funding.
“We expect European leadership to avoid having second thoughts about
future enlargements, after the double ‘no’ to the European
constitution,” Prime Minister Adnan Terzic told the Council of
Europe’s parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg, France.
Albania, Macedonia and Serbia-Montenegro are also seeking to join the
EU but are yet to start negotiating membership with the bloc.