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Brussels plans to expand its empire again

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  • Brussels plans to expand its empire again

    The Times (London)
    May 4, 2004, Tuesday

    Brussels plans to expand its empire again

    by Anthony Browne Europe Correspondent


    With the largest-ever enlargement of the European Union behind them,
    European officials are now preparing even more ambitious plans to
    expand the Brussels empire across North Africa, the Middle East and
    Asia.

    They hope that just as the enlargement last weekend helped to
    entrench democracy in eight former communist countries, this new
    policy will stabilise much of the Arab world, as well as the
    still turbulent far eastern regions of Europe.

    Next week, the European Commission, the EU's executive body, will
    launch a strategy document setting out details of an effective
    enlargement of the EU over decades across all the Muslim countries
    lining the Mediterranean, from Morocco to Syria, as well as Israel,
    Lebanon and all the former parts of the Soviet Union that are in
    Europe, including Russia.

    This is in addition to the well-advanced plans for Romania and
    Bulgaria to become full members of the EU in 2007, followed by all
    the Balkan countries, including Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia.
    The Commission will also announce in October whether it thinks that
    Turkey is ready to join the EU.

    Under the New Neighbourhood policy -also called the Wider Europe
    policy - countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Ukraine and Russia
    would be become full members of the single market, with open borders
    for trade and investment, and their citizens given the full right to
    live and work in the European Union. The policy has been agreed in
    principle by the national governments of the EU.

    However, they will be able to join the single market only if they
    become democratic, improve human rights and establish free-market
    economies upheld by Western-style commercial law.

    The Commission spokesman said: "It is a win-win situation for us to
    provide incentives for them to move closer to European standards."

    EU diplomats say that Jordan, Morocco and Ukraine are the closest to
    meeting these criteria, but that for most of the North African and
    Middle Eastern countries it could take ten or twenty years, or even
    longer.

    The new associate countries would initially be part of a single
    European market, but wuold be denied membership of the
    decision-making institutions -namely the Commission, the Council of
    Ministers and Parliament.

    Romano Prodi, the President of the Commission, said at the Dublin
    enlargement celebrations this weekend: "The goal is to create a ring
    of friends with whom we share common concerns, both political and
    economic. In a sense, this is another concept of enlargement -an
    enlargement without institutions."

    The Commission and European governments are worried about a popular
    backlash against a policy that -combined with Turkey's possible
    membership -offers hundreds of millions of Muslims from across North
    Africa and the Middle East the right to live and work in Europe.

    Brussels officials are very keen to play down fears that it would
    result in large-scale immigration. One insisted: "We are talking
    about a very long time away. By opening their economy, and making
    themselves investment and business-friendly, it will generate
    economic growth, which makes less need to emigrate."

    In a further development, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, former
    Soviet republics in the Caucasus region between the Black Sea and
    Caspian Sea, will be told next month that they, too, eventually will
    be eligible for the New Neighbourhood Policy. The three countries
    have said that they want full membership of the EU, but initially
    will be offered only access to the European single market.

    Progress on the Balkan countries joining the EU is advancing fast.
    Last month the Commission formally gave its permission for Croatia to
    join, possibly as soon as 2007. The Former Yugoslav Republic of
    Macedonia has formally applied to join.

    The most controversial expansion is Turkey. EU governments have
    promised to decide its future in Europe at a summit in December.
    Britain and Germany insist that admitting Turkey, a country of 70
    million Muslims, is vital to ward off the so-called "clash of
    civilisations". France has indicated that it is opposed.

    Turkey's population is expected to grow to 100 million by 2050, and
    many European politicians worry that having a developing nation
    almost entirely in Central Asia as the largest member will
    effectively destroy the EU.
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