Estonia

and Mark TurnerLUXEMBOURG Premier Jean-Claude Juncker faces an uphill struggle at this week’s Luxembourg summit to prevent the Union’s historic expansion eastwards being soured by a clutch of internal arguments between existing EU members.

FEARS of an explosion in drug trafficking, prostitution and organised crime could be one of the biggest stumbling blocks on the road to eastward enlargement, EU law and order ministers are warning.

THE last foreign affairs ministerial before the Luxembourg summit left the EU as divided as ever over how to proceed with enlargement to central and eastern Europe. Although Luxembourg’s Jacques Poos claimed the Union had reached a “consensus on a text reflecting broad lines”, ministers backed away from any decision on the start of negotiations and the launch of the European Conference next year.

NEGOTIATIONS to streamline costly and time-consuming industrial certification procedures between the Union and central and eastern Europe’s front runners for membership are entering a key phase.

EUROPEAN Commission President Jacques Santer is likely find a bridge-building trip to the Baltic states next week an uphill struggle.

IF ONE thing scares western Europeans about EU enlargement to the east, it is the prospect of 100 million new citizens stealing their jobs.

31 October – 6 November 1997Friday 31 October

31 October – 17 November 1997Friday 31 October

TOP European Commission transport officials are set to fine-tune their strategy on how – and how fast – to widen the EU’s single market for aviation into central and eastern Europe after warnings that safety standards in some countries in the region need upgrading urgently.

EU ENLARGEMENT to eastern and central Europe will fail unless the Union adopts a new model of negotiation, according to a report by five leading European academics and politicians.

EUROPEAN Commission President Jacques Santer will throw down the gauntlet to EU leaders over internal Union reform at their December summit in Luxembourg.

THE prospect of a 21-member Union early in the 21st century moved closer this week as the European Commission fired the starting gun on the fifth enlargement in the EU’s history.

EUROPEAN Commission President Jacques Santer delivered a stark warning about the consequences of failure to reform the EU’s decision-making process as he unveiled the long-awaited ‘Agenda 2000’ report this week.

ROUND two of the battle over the pace of EU enlargement began in earnest this week, even before the European Commission had revealed the results of round one.

PolandPoland is judged politically ready (despite some press freedom problems) and economically prepared, but the report contains warnings about its progress towards fulfilling the EU acquis. Although, with effort, it should be able to participate fully in the medium term, Poland needs to pay special attention to agriculture, the environment and road transport. Telecoms, fisheries and consumer protection also need work,and further administrative reform is indispensable. The country faces significant challenges in the justice field, particularly concerning drugs, border management and transnational crime.

AFTER months of speculation, the European Commission has finally declared its hand over enlargement, recommending that entry talks should begin with just six applicant countries, leaving the rest in the EU waiting room.

A BATTLE inside the European Commission over how many central and eastern European applicants should be invited to EU enlargement talks reflects even deeper divisions between existing member states over the scale of expansion.

IT IS no coincidence that Russia’s Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin is coming to Brussels next week.

“WE are now in a new era. We will make the 21st century a century which will redeem the 20th,” proclaimed US ambassador to NATO Robert Hunteran hour after the alliance officially accepted its historic accord with Russia.

THE Czech Republic is leading the pack of ten former Communist countries bidding for EU membership, with Bulgaria bringing up the rear.

ONLY a year after leaders from 11 Baltic Sea states met at a special one-off leaders’ summit in Visby, there are already moves afoot to hold another one.

FACED with its most profound foreign policy crisis since thecivil war in former Yugoslavia, Europe held a meeting and designed a bureaucracy.

AS INDUSTRY Commissioner Martin Bangemann sets off on a didactic tour of the East, his would-be pupils may be forgiven for wondering exactly what he expects to achieve.

WHATEVER other reasons the EU may have for expanding into central and eastern Europe, one stands head and shoulders above the rest – money.