EU summit: Too much enlargement?

Europe must ask itself how much more enlargement the EU can take, Danish Prime Minister Andres Fogh Rasmussen has said.

Speaking at a meeting of Liberal leaders in Brussels, the Danish premier said the EU’s “absorption capacity” must not be overlooked.

“It is necessary for Europe to consider how far and how quickly it can enlarge,” Rasmussen told a press conference.

“We have to take Europe’s absorption capacity into consideration.”

The Danish liberal insisted that future entrants will not be subject to additional scrutiny.

“New entrants will not be subject to a change in accession criteria,” he said.

His counterparts were keen to stress that while Europe is desperately in need of a constitutional treaty - it can still enlarge without one.

“Of course we can take on new member states without a new constitutional treaty,” Finnish prime minister, Matti Vanhanen stressed.

“But in future we will need an effective enlargement process so we will need new rules eventually.”

Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu said he would be using this week’s Brussels summit to help re-launch the European project.

But he will also be using his EU trip to push member states to speed up ratification of accession treaties on Romania and Bulgaria.

“Denmark will ratify Romania and Bulgaria’s accession treaties as soon as we get the green light from the European council,” Rasmussen retorted.

“Following the commission’s last report we decided to postpone ratification but we would very much like to see both countries joining the EU.”

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