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EU TO TALK ENLARGEMENT AMID 'RISK OF DIVISION'
Hurriyet
Sept 29 2011
Turkey
EU's Warsaw summit aims to keep alive the vision of bloc's eastward
enlargement though these plans may fail while EU warring with euro
and border crisis
Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor (R) holds the English version
of the Treaty on Croatian accession to the EU received from her Polish
counterpart and EU Chairman Donald Tusk (L) before their meeting in
Zagreb in this file photo. Croatia is scheduled to become the EU's
28th member on July 1, 2013. AFP photo
Poland is welcoming European Union leaders on Thursday for what
is expected to be a key event of its EU presidency: a two-day
summit aimed at keeping alive the prospect of the bloc's eastward
enlargement. However these ambitions may well be overshadowed by the
recent euro zone crisis and the problem of free movement of people
across borders.
Poland's foreign minister says EU membership could become more
realistic for nations on the bloc's eastern periphery in the next
decade if they become "a little bit like Norway or Switzerland."
Poland began its first EU presidency in July. Sikorski said EU
membership "at this point is distant" for the countries.
But he urged them to adopt Western-style laws and democratic standards,
saying that was their only hope for eventual membership.
The summit in Warsaw is to focus heavily on Ukraine, which has been
negotiating free trade and association agreements with the EU a
milestone for the former Soviet state in its hoped-for path toward
deeper integration with its wealthier neighbors. The landmark deals,
however, are now threatened by signs of Kiev's wavering commitment to
democratic standards, including the detention and trial of former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, which EU and U.S. leaders have criticized
as politically motivated.
'Biggest challange since its creation'
The envoy of the EU to Kiev on Wednesday accused Ukraine of turning
a deaf ear to its pleas to free Tymoshenko after prosecutors demanded
a seven year jail term.
Meanwhile, Georgia declared that it aims to join the EU within 10
years, its President Mikheil Saakashvili said. Poland wants to see
its eastern neighbors build strong trade and investment ties with
the West that would distance them from Russia's sphere of influence.
The Eastern Partnership is a Polish and Swedish initiative launched in
2009 to promote greater integration between the EU and six countries:
Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus.
Besides these ambitions, the EU's two most cherished achievements,
a common currency and the free movement of people across borders,
are under threat, which seems to overshadow its enlargement plans
in near future. And the possibility that the decades-long experiment
that is the EU might not survive in its present form has now entered
mainstream debate.
Romania and Bulgaria, the EU's two newest members, were denied entry
into Europe's borderless free-travel zone on Sept. 22 when EU interior
ministers could not reach the necessary unanimity and decided not to
hold a vote.
The Polish finance minister, Jacek Rostowski, has raised the prospect
that the EU might split apart. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said if
its common currency, the euro, failed, so too would Europe itself. On
Wednesday, Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European
Commission, described the state of the union in unusually stark terms.
The EU, he said, was facing the biggest challenge since its creation.
None of these officials is predicting the EU's demise. But it is
a measure of the gravity of situation that they are discussing the
possibility at all
Hurriyet
Sept 29 2011
Turkey
EU's Warsaw summit aims to keep alive the vision of bloc's eastward
enlargement though these plans may fail while EU warring with euro
and border crisis
Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor (R) holds the English version
of the Treaty on Croatian accession to the EU received from her Polish
counterpart and EU Chairman Donald Tusk (L) before their meeting in
Zagreb in this file photo. Croatia is scheduled to become the EU's
28th member on July 1, 2013. AFP photo
Poland is welcoming European Union leaders on Thursday for what
is expected to be a key event of its EU presidency: a two-day
summit aimed at keeping alive the prospect of the bloc's eastward
enlargement. However these ambitions may well be overshadowed by the
recent euro zone crisis and the problem of free movement of people
across borders.
Poland's foreign minister says EU membership could become more
realistic for nations on the bloc's eastern periphery in the next
decade if they become "a little bit like Norway or Switzerland."
Poland began its first EU presidency in July. Sikorski said EU
membership "at this point is distant" for the countries.
But he urged them to adopt Western-style laws and democratic standards,
saying that was their only hope for eventual membership.
The summit in Warsaw is to focus heavily on Ukraine, which has been
negotiating free trade and association agreements with the EU a
milestone for the former Soviet state in its hoped-for path toward
deeper integration with its wealthier neighbors. The landmark deals,
however, are now threatened by signs of Kiev's wavering commitment to
democratic standards, including the detention and trial of former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, which EU and U.S. leaders have criticized
as politically motivated.
'Biggest challange since its creation'
The envoy of the EU to Kiev on Wednesday accused Ukraine of turning
a deaf ear to its pleas to free Tymoshenko after prosecutors demanded
a seven year jail term.
Meanwhile, Georgia declared that it aims to join the EU within 10
years, its President Mikheil Saakashvili said. Poland wants to see
its eastern neighbors build strong trade and investment ties with
the West that would distance them from Russia's sphere of influence.
The Eastern Partnership is a Polish and Swedish initiative launched in
2009 to promote greater integration between the EU and six countries:
Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus.
Besides these ambitions, the EU's two most cherished achievements,
a common currency and the free movement of people across borders,
are under threat, which seems to overshadow its enlargement plans
in near future. And the possibility that the decades-long experiment
that is the EU might not survive in its present form has now entered
mainstream debate.
Romania and Bulgaria, the EU's two newest members, were denied entry
into Europe's borderless free-travel zone on Sept. 22 when EU interior
ministers could not reach the necessary unanimity and decided not to
hold a vote.
The Polish finance minister, Jacek Rostowski, has raised the prospect
that the EU might split apart. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said if
its common currency, the euro, failed, so too would Europe itself. On
Wednesday, Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European
Commission, described the state of the union in unusually stark terms.
The EU, he said, was facing the biggest challenge since its creation.
None of these officials is predicting the EU's demise. But it is
a measure of the gravity of situation that they are discussing the
possibility at all