Report refuels debate over enlargement

Date: 11/04/1996

By Thomas Klau

THE debate over how to handle Central and Eastern European countries likely to lag behind in the race for EU membership has been reignited by a draft parliamentary report on the strategy for enlargement.

MEPs will vote next week (17 April) on the report, drawn up by Dutch MEP Arie Oostlander as rapporteur for the foreign affairs committee, which insists that accession negotiations with all applicant countries should begin six months after the Intergovernmental Conference on EU reform is concluded.

Further suggestions in the report which are likely to trigger massive opposition include a call for the temporary or permanent exclusion of those countries not respecting human rights, and an end to the right of individual member states to veto the entry of a new member into the Union. The report stresses that future EU member states should not be able to block the accession of other countries.

Whilst a decision on how - and when - to start individual enlargement negotiations has yet to be taken, divisions have already emerged on how to proceed.

The Oostlander report insists simultaneous negotiations are the best approach. “It is important to have one starting point,” he says, pointing out that this strategy has already won the backing of the Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek.

“It will be a largely symbolic date and will not have the same meaning for all countries. But it is better to start accession negotiations and meet once every semester over a period of several years than to leave a country out altogether,” says Oostlander.

The issue of how to deal with member states not respecting human rights or democratic principles has already been discussed at the IGC working group's first meeting in Brussels.

However, member states including Germany, while open to the idea of limited sanctions such as a temporary suspension of EU subsidies, strongly oppose the idea of a full-blown exclusion.

The proposal to abolish a member state's right to block new accessions is likely to trigger equally strong opposition from several EU governments.

Greece has often wielded its national veto to prevent a deepening of EU relations

with Turkey, while the UK has declared its fundamental opposition to any erosion of national vetoes at the IGC.

Meanwhile, accession candidates such as Poland have indicated they would strongly oppose any attempt to give new Union members lesser rights than present ones.

The Parliament's draft report also calls on the Commission to produce a White Paper on the further development of the rule of law, democracy and the evolution of the social and economic situation in applicant countries, and to proceed to a yearly evaluation of these issues.

The report suggests further White Papers on other issues should be drafted as necessary, particularly on social policy.