Transitions Online:
"Members and Guests Only?
by Karel Bartak
20 April 2006
As the EU tries to fix its borders, offers of a 'privileged' status short of membership may offer a way out of the enlargement imbroglio – or make it worse.
BRUSSELS, Belgium | The member states and institutions of the European Union are locked in a bitter debate on the future expansion of the bloc – whether it should enlarge at all and if so, to what extent. This concerns not just distant prospects but also immediate events, above all the accession of Bulgaria and Romania planned for 1 January 2007.
The debate highlights the indigestion caused in the 15 members from Western Europe by the EU's big-bang expansion into Central and Eastern Europe in 2004. It also shows up the change of mood brought about by continued economic stagnation among the EU-15 and last year's traumatic rejection of a draft constitution by voters in France and the Netherlands.
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