European Union Moves Eastward

The European Union's executive Commission declared eight east European nations, Cyprus and Malta nearly ready for EU membership and recommended Wednesday that they be invited to join in 2004 - the most ambitious EU expansion ever.

In a move bound to upset Ankara and Washington, however, the European Commission remained silent on when to start entrance talks with Turkey, an EU candidate since 1999.

A Commission report said Turkey still failed to meet political and economic membership criteria and needs to clean up its human rights records.

Although Turkey had made a good start toward improving its human rights record, problems remained, the Commission said. It suggested doubling the $172 million a year Turkey receives in aid as a candidate for membership to reform the judiciary, improve the small business climate and modernize the civil service.

The United States has urged the west Europeans to be more welcoming to Turkey, which Washington considers a loyal and strategically important Muslim ally in the war on terrorism.

The 93-page Commission report said membership talks with Malta, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia have gone well enough to justify bringing them into the EU in 2004.

Taking in developing neighbors, most of which are shedding 50 years of communist legacy, will be costly but worthwhile, European Commission President Romano Prodi told the European Parliament.

"The cost of enlargement is nothing compared to the costs of not enlarging," he added, referring to the EU goal of erasing Europe's Cold War divide for good by reuniting the continent. "We will be creating the biggest single market in the world."

Romania and Bulgaria, also negotiating entry, likely will not be ready until 2007, the Commission said, a target the two countries set themselves.

Membership invitations will likely be issued at a mid-December EU summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

That would leave two years for the 10 treaties to be ratified by the legislatures of the EU nations, the candidate countries and the European Parliament.

EU enlargement still faces major hurdles. EU nations must settle a disagreement over subsidies to farmers in the candidate states. Irish voters could reject expansion in a second vote Oct. 19. And EU officials are still hoping reconciliation talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots will be completed shortly.

Negotiations began with Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia in March 1998 and with Malta, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia in October 1999.

The talks cover 30-odd economic, financial, political, trade and other areas in which candidates must adopt EU rules and legislation. Membership may promise trade and other benefits - including EU assistance. It also exposes industries in candidate states to tough competition from wealthy EU rivals.

The Commission said the 10 candidates were "ready for membership from the beginning of 2004," although much work remains to be done "in a limited number of specific areas."

Romania and Bulgaria likely will be delayed until 2007 because of weak economies, the Commission said, adding Turkey was the weakest link among candidates.

"Turkey does not yet meet the accession criteria," Prodi told the European Parliament.

The EU report cited improvements in human rights but also a litany of lingering shortcomings such as restrictions on freedom of expression, torture of prisoners, excessively long pre-arrest detentions and not enough civilian control over Turkey's powerful armed forces, which have long been the silent major power in the country.

The EU's eastward shift in 2004 parallels the expansion of the NATO alliance, whose leaders are to invite Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria to join the alliance in November.

Also, the EU hopes reconciliation talks between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities on ending a 28-year division of the Mediterranean island will lead to all of Cyprus joining the union.

If the U.N.-sponsored reconciliation fails, EU-member Greece wants the Greek half of Cyprus to come in or it will veto EU enlargement as a whole. For its part, Ankara has warned it may annex the Turkish side of Cyprus if the north is left out - a move that would have dangerous implications for always-shaky Greek-Turkish relations.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis said Wednesday, "Cyprus cannot be held hostage by any other country."

An expansion by 10 countries in 2004 would be the most ambitious ever for an organization that began in the early 1950s as the European Coal and Steel Community. Its six founding nations - Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg - created the European Common Market in 1957.

Later this month, the EU leaders are to take up a dispute over a proposal to spend $39.1 billion in farm subsidies in the 10 candidate nations between 2004 and 2006. Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain oppose the subsidies and demand a reform of EU farm spending overall, which eats up half of the union's budget of about $97.9 billion.

By Robert Wielaard