Meri: war against terror will benefit from enlargement

Date: 28/03/02

By Martin Banks

ENLARGEMENT will give Europe a better chance of defending itself against international terrorism, according to the former president of Estonia.

Lennart Meri, head of state for nine years until last October, said that Europe had grown used to looking to the US to deal with such issues.

'Europe's relative inability to deal adequately, say, with the continuing problems in the former Yugoslavia highlights its failings on this front,' he said.

'Enlargement will bring about many benefits, including a guarantee of more stability.

'This will, in turn, improve Europe's ability to defend itself and deal with such security issues more effectively without having to rely on America quite so heavily.'

Meri, the Estonian government representative on the EU constitutional Convention, also said he was 'quietly confident' his country would be among the ten candidate countries expected to join the EU in 2004. But he admits that eurosceptics in his country will still have to be won over before any future referendum on membership is held.

He said: 'Like some other accession countries, there is a large body of opinion in Estonia that fears an increased EU will mean there are fewer resources to go round - more people feeding from a smaller pot, if you like.

'But I think that is the wrong approach. Enlargement will result in a larger pot for us all.'

Enlargement will give Europe a better chance of defending itself against international terrorism, according to the former president of Estonia, Lennart Meri.