EU Approves Biggest Enlargement in 40 Years
03:38 p.m Dec 12, 1997 Eastern
By Ian Geoghegan
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union Friday agreed to throw open
its
doors to five former communist states, plus the divided island of
Cyprus, heralding
the biggest single enlargement in its 40-year history.
The historic deal, which could see the five former Cold War foes
entering the
15-member Union within a decade, was almost matched by a late-evening
breakthrough over the small print of plans to create a single currency.
A compromise deal, coming just minutes after news of the enlargement
agreement,
ended a potentially damaging rift over the so-called ''Euro-x'' -- the
term coined for
the inner circle of countries planning to join economic and monetary
union (EMU)
at its January 1999 launch.
Britain, backed by Sweden, Denmark and Greece -- the four countries
unlikely to
join EMU from the start -- had insisted on having a seat at the euro
council to avoid
being cut out of key European policy decisions.
France wanted the ''euro-zone'' council as a key to deepening political
ties among
EMU members before the Union admits new members from beyond the old Iron
Curtain.
Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima said the compromise deal would keep
regular EU
finance ministers (Ecofin) meetings as the main decision-making body,
but would
allow countries moving to EMU to meet informally on specific single
currency
issues.
''The consensus is first that the Ecofin is the only decision- taking
body. Second,
that the 11 (in EMU) have the right to meet on specific issues and
third, on common
issues (of concern) all 15 will meet,'' Klima told Reuters.
''This is a good solution for Sweden, a good solution for the whole of
the European
Union,'' Swedish Finance Minister Erik Asbrink told reporters.
''It took a lengthy debate to arrive at this, but that's the art of
diplomacy,'' French
Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn told a news conference.
The lengthy wrangling over the finer points of the ''Euro-x'' debate
threatened to
detract from the move to extend eastwards the Union's blanket of
security and
stability.
Swedish Foreign Minister Lena Hjelm-Wallen said a majority of EU leaders
attending a two-day summit in Luxembourg had spoken in favor of a common
start
for up to 11 applicants, but said the five which were most advanced in
their reform
process would move ahead at a faster pace.
Accession negotiations were expected to start in earnest next spring
with Poland,
Hungary, the Czech Republic -- all of whom are about to sign up to the
NATO
military alliance -- Estonia, Slovenia and Cyprus.
''The new thing here is that we also include the others much better than
was
proposed earlier,'' she said, referring to the idea that Slovakia,
Bulgaria, Romania,
Latvia and Lithuania, judged not yet ready to join formal talks, could
now be invited
to open negotiations, albeit at a slower pace.
''We all agree a common starting line, with differentiation
afterwards,'' an EU
official quoted summit host and Luxembourg Premier Jean-Claude Juncker
as
saying.
A text to be presented to leaders Saturday would say that a screening
phase should
begin with all 11 would-be members at the same time followed by
individual
negotiations with the six front-runners, the official said.
Turkey, which applied to join the bloc almost 35 years ago and which
insists the EU
make clear it has candidate status, on Thursday snubbed an invitation to
join EU
leaders for dinner.
Major European powers have demanded Turkey lives up to Europe's
democratic
values and improves its human rights record.
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