The Turkish question was as expected carefully avoided

Too often felt as a leak in front, the enlargement of Europe should be better controlled in the future... Without however pause. The heads of State and Government, meeting on the eve of the weekend in Brussels, have sought to respond to the concern of public opinions which saw, without always understand their community spend 15 to 25 members and 27 from 1 January with the arrival of the Romania and the Bulgaria.

The novelty is to take into account not only the State of preparation of the candidates membership, but also the ability of the Union to welcome them. In the conclusions were approved without difficulty, the twenty-five point out that "the Union must maintain its capacity for integration", which implies, on the one hand, "that the accession countries assume fully their obligations" contractual and, on the other hand, that the Union can "operate effectively and move forward." Europe thus falls to the principle of common sense posed in its time by the former President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, who pointed out that enlargement and deepening should go hand in hand.

"I saw emerge a new consensus on the idea of combining the strategic vision of the future enlargements and the capacity for the integration of the Union", said the current President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, who welcomed the merger of the two camps, who defended far either enlargement or deepening of the European Union.

Appropriate institutions

Specifically, the future accession negotiations, conducted by the Commission, will be better framed: the most difficult issues, such as judicial reform and the fight against corruption, will be considered at the outset of the process, so that today ' today are less problematic areas which are dealt with first, suggesting that accession raises few difficulties. Then, the pace of the discussions will be more dictated by the commitments of the candidates to carry out reforms, but by their effective implementation. Finally, the Union will abstain from set of readily deadlines, as it almost always been the case, for not binding until the negotiations are not successful. Same rigour requirement will be for the Union, which will now have to ensure that it has the ability to institutional, financial and policy to welcome new members.

The first assumes that Europe is able to operate through appropriate institutions, the second that its budgetary resources to finance the arrival of the new entrant, the third common policies are not put in danger.

Taking responsibility

Each application must be accompanied by an "assessment of its impact on the key areas of Union action" by the European Commission. French President Jacques Chirac added that public opinion should support these enlargements, recalling that, for its part, the France will submit any new membership to a referendum.

These new measures will not apply to Croatia, which is expected to join the Union around 2010. On the other hand, Macedonia, already candidate, and the Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania) to which the twenty-five reaffirmed this weekend that they "welcome in the Union", will be subject to these new conditions. The Turkish question was, as expected, carefully avoided. The heads of State and Government have simply endorsed the decision of their foreign ministers to freeze the opening of 8 chapters of negotiation on 35 and not close any also long the Turkey did not apply the Ankara Protocol, worth recognition of the Republic of Cyprus. Time of a larger taking responsibility of the European Union to its future Member States may be sounded.