Expansion go-ahead takes EU membership to 25

Ten countries were today getting the go-ahead to join the European Union – the biggest single expansion since the original six pioneering nations joined forces to form the Common Market 50 years ago.

The historic enlargement to 25 EU member states will not take place until mid-2004.

But the European Commission’s latest assessment of negotiations so far will clear the way for Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia plus the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as Malta and Cyprus, to join up – subject to them completing the immense task of implementing the vast body of EU law by then.

Two other hopeful applicant countries – Bulgaria and Romania – are not yet ready to join, says the Commission. And Turkey is so far off the starting blocks that no launch date is being set now by Brussels for launching membership negotiations.

Nevertheless, confirmation that ten central, eastern and southern European countries are to join marks the most ambitious leap forward in the EU’s development.

The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 paved the way for the reunification of the European continent. Now after years of struggles to establish market economies and throw off the yoke of communism, the work is almost complete.

Final months remain of intense negotiations on contentious issues such as agriculture subsidies and special financial packages to ease the path of the newcomers into the EU.

And grumbles have begun that the current 15 member states have taken on too much, and that the newcomers are joining too soon.

There are warnings that the EU is not adapting quickly enough to cope with a wholesale extension of its institutions – the European Commission alone is taking on 4,000 more staff to deal with a 25-strong bloc.

And the race is on to agree sweeping new reform of the way the EU takes decision and conducts its business, to avoid a 25-nation gridlock in future.