Verdere uitbreiding EU niet op de agenda van komende EU-top (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders will not discuss further enlargement of the 25-member bloc during their meeting on 16-17 June, diplomats said on Monday.

During their get-together in Luxembourg today, EU foreign ministers proposed that heads of state and government should only reiterate the enlargement commitments they have already made and recall the need to implement them during the forthcoming summit.

The decision to avoid a protracted discussion on enlargement follows fears that further expansion of the bloc is rapidly losing popularity in some quarters of the EU.

This perception has been compounded by the fact that part of the reason that French and Dutch voters gave for voting against the constitution two weeks ago was due to fears about further enlargement - after the EU expanded to include a further ten countries last year.

Several politicians in different countries have also been making negative statements about making the bloc bigger - even questioning Bulgaria and Romania, which are due to join in 2007.

However, the draft conclusions for the EU summit do mention Bulgaria and Romania's new status - both countries signed their EU accession treaties on 25 April. The conclusions say that their accession process will go on, a Bulgarian diplomat stressed.

Western Balkans

There was also some positive signs for other EU hopefuls. Foreign ministers expressed "satisfaction" with some new elements concerning Croatia's progress towards full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal at the Hague.

"Croatia has made progress which may lead to full cooperation" with the tribunal, Luxembourg foreign minister Jean Asselborn, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said at a press conference.

"We shall continue our examination of the dossier in July, under the British presidency", he added.

And the European Commission is sending a message to the Western Balkans that "the stabilisation and association process is moving on", enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said.

"The door of the EU is still open to those countries that meet the criteria of accession or association", depending on the stage the countries are at, he added.

The foreign ministers have also approved the protocol broadening the customs union that the EU has with Turkey to the ten new member states, including Cyprus, according to the Guardian.

If Turkey now implements the document, which it has committed itself to do, it will have met all the conditions set by Brussels to start EU talks on 3 October, says the paper.