Enlargement debate splits EU

A tiny Austrian revision to an EU text on future enlargement and “absorption capacity” is not nearly enough for some of Europe’s capitals.

Europe’s leaders were divided on Thursday night over wording on the EU’s “absorption”, “functioning” or “assimilation” capacity to take new members.

Early Austrian EU presidency drafts – Vienna is hostile to Turkish membership – appear to create a new “criterion of the union’s absorption capacity”.

Austria has listened to reservations, a camp led by the UK, Italy, Sweden and Hungary, to make revised wording “much more cosmetic”.

"The language has to be toned down so as not to pre-empt a December 2006 summit debate on this question," said one EU diplomat.

But UK and other national officials remain concerned over Austria’s slant on the question and discussions will continue on Friday morning.

“The wording has been revised. A text is circulating but it is still not right. Discussions will continue,” said another diplomat.

New wording simply changes “the criterion of the union’s absorption capacity” to “the union’s absorption capacity criterion” a cosmetic change that will not satisfy countries such as the UK.

Language instructing the European commission to take account “perception of enlargement by public opinion” is also a sticking point.

Thirteen of 25 EU capitals are unhappy with creating a new public opinion driven criteria for membership beyond EU reform requirements applied equally to all applicants.

New draft conclusions still appear to instruct the commission to make public opinion polls a factor for membership – a clause driven by the unpopularity of Turkey’s EU entry bid.

"The pace of enlargement must take the union’s absorption capacity into account. The commission is invited to provide a special report covering all relevant aspects pertaining to the criterion of the union’s absorption capacity," notes draft conclusions published on Friday June 16.

Europe’s institutional and political ability to absorb new members is already mentioned as an element of the rules by which EU hopefuls are judged.

But moves to new wording reflect EU divisions over further enlargement, particularly hostility Turkey’s entry bid in France, Austria and other countries.

Germany is a sceptic on Turkey but has not supported Austria, instead Berlin restricts concerns to EU treaty provisions basing institutions around a maximum 27 members to be revised.

“Germany was always clear: it is favourable to widening, on the condition which the EU gets new institutions,” a German diplomat told Le Figaro.

France has coined the phrase “assimilation capacity… [with] several dimensions: democratic, institutional, political and financial”.

Paris has also pledged to hold a referendum on future enlargements, a move that on present opinion polling will block Turkey no matter how well Ankara implements EU rules.

The commission has opted for a much more institutional concept, focused on EU treaty provisions for member numbers and budgets, branded “functioning capacity”.

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