European Union set for historic expansion

Article reports on the European Commission's recommendation of 9 October 2002 that the negotiations on accession to the European Union should be concluded by the end of 2002 with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. The Commission considers that these countries will be ready for membership from the beginning of 2004. It was hoped that Bulgaria and Romania would be able to join in 2007. However, Turkey's status was unclear. The country has been a candidate country since 1999, but it has yet to start official negotiations with Brussels.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/02/1443&format=HTML&rapid=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/02/1443&format=HTML&rapid=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/index_en https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/index_en

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