Posted on the off-chance that Europe still matters.BRUSSELS - European leaders are set to put the brakes on EU enlargement, at a two-day summit in Brussels opening Thursday, to allow time to get the blocÂ’s constitutional house in order.
The European Parliament on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly in favour of reforming the EU’s institutions before admitting any more member states, a call endorsed by the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, on the eve of a summit where enlargement tops the agenda. The buzzwords are “integration capacity” or “absorption capacity”, putting the emphasis on the EU’s ability to handle new members more than the readiness of candidate states to join up.
Including the ability to shake down the new members for the French and German pension plans.
“A new institutional settlement should have been reached by the time the next new member is likely to be ready to join the Union,” Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told euro MPs during their enlargement debate in Strasbourg. “We need it to strengthen the legitimacy of the Union. We need it to strengthen Europe’s role in the world,” he said, adding that the steps to achieve that settlement should be taken before 2009.
Right about the time Airbus collapses.
Bulgaria and Romania will become the 26th and 27th members of the European club on January 1, but under the strictest conditions ever imposed on new members amid continued concerns over corruption and their judicial systems. After that there is general agreement that the doors must be closed while serious EU housekeeping is done. Bad news for Croatia and the other, mainly Balkan, nations behind it in the queue.
| How's that deal the Turks worked out with the French back in '03? You know, the one where the Turks agreed to keep the U.S. 4th Division out and the French agreed to support the Turks in the EU? |