By Anne-France White - 24th September 2006
There should be no new wave of EU enlargement until sweeping reforms have taken place, José Manuel Barroso warned today.
The European commission president's words come on the eve of the commission’s final report on Romania and Bulgaria, which is widely expected to give the green light to the two countries to join the EU in January 2007.
“I think it would be unwise to bring in more member states apart from Romania and Bulgaria, which will be joining us soon, before we have solved the institutional question,” he said.
“I would like to have Croatia join as soon as possible,” he added, “But the Nice Treaty says new rules must be elaborated when the EU reaches more than 27 members.”
His comments are likely to ring alarm bells in Zagreb, as Croatia is next in line as a candidate for accession.
Croatia and Turkey both started EU entry talks in 2005, but the Croatian accession is generally regarded as less problematic as the country is considerably smaller and more economically developed than Turkey.
Agreement on a new EU constitution has proven highly elusive so far, and making a Croatian entry contingent upon institutional reform is likely to delay it until at least 2008 or 2009.
But a Croatian official told this website that he did not think Barroso’s words would have a significant impact on his country’s EU chances.
Although he recognized that the institutional question will be on the table, he argued that Croatia has already made progress towards accession and suggested the remarks may have been directed at other candidate countries.
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