Kritiek in EP over Europese uitbreidingsstrategie (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The head of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee is preparing a scathing response to the European Commission's recently -published strategy on how to deal with enlargement in the future.

The short report, still in draft version, castigates the commission for ducking hard decisions on further expansion of the bloc "[regretting] the failure to provide a serious analysis of the issues which need to be resolved before the Union can proceed with further enlargements."

Drawn up by centre-right MEP Elmar Brok, the document, which is facing some 200 amendments, indicates that the commission has sidestepped all of the tricky issues such as what to do about institutional reform, how to pay for future enlargement and what political criteria should form the basis of future decisions.

The commission's paper "does not deal seriously with the financial implications of further enlargement," says the Brok report calling on governments to "address courageously the institutional, financial and political factors" that should form the basis of future enlargement decisions.

The report also deems unsatisfactory the main, and most controversial point of the commission's eagerly-awaited strategy - its definition of integration capacity, the EU's ability to take on new member states.

In its general paper setting out future enlargement strategy, published last week, the commission defined integration capacity as being "determined by the development of the EU's policies and institutions, and by the transformation of applicants into well-prepared member states."

National governments had asked the commission to nail down the integration factor after a series of heated discussions about how much the EU's own well-being should be taken into account before giving the enlargement go-ahead.

With Bulgaria and Romania to join in January and a series of Western Balkan countries as well as Turkey all lining up to join the bloc, the Brok report notes that "overstretching the internal capacity of the EU can weaken the EU internally and externally and this cannot be compensated by increased external size."

It also calls on member states to be tougher during future enlargement negotiations saying that they should take a "much more active role in the monitoring the accession process."

The demand comes as Bucharest and Sofia recently got the go-ahead to join the EU in January in spite of some strong misgivings about their readiness to become members.

The draft report, which goes before MEPs in the foreign affairs committee on Wednesday (23 November) and the whole plenary on 13 December, also demands that the commission give "clear recommendations" before EU leaders meet mid-December on what to do if Turkey does not normalise relations with EU member Cyprus.

The commission in a report on Turkey last week strongly criticised Ankara for its continued refusal to trade with Cyprus but stopped short of pulling the plug on the faltering membership talks.