French minister proposes EU country cap

THE European Union should suspend further enlargement of the bloc after French and Dutch voters rejected its constitution, France’s powerful interior minister said yesterday in a veiled reference to Turkey’s entry bid.

Nicolas Sarkozy, who has presidential ambitions and heads the ruling Union for a Popular Movement, said Bulgaria and Romania should be allowed to join because their accession process had already gone too far to be stopped. They hope to join in 2007.