MEPs eye tougher conditions for future enlargement[fr][de] 

While praising the "great success" of past enlargements, the report calls for a thorough rethink of the process for future rounds. 

It notably stresses the importance of ensuring that acceding countries resolve their main internal problems before joining the Union, "particularly concerning [their] territorial and constitutional set-up".

It also insists that further enlargements should "strike a balance between the Union's geostrategic interests, the impact of political developments outside its borders and the Union's integration capacity". The latter notion, often put forward by critics of the EU's enlargement policy, is defined by the following four elements:

1. Accession states should contribute to and not impair the EU's political objectives; 
2. their institutions should be efficient and effective;
3. their financial resources should be adequate, and;
4. a communication strategy should be established to inform public opinion about the implications of enlargement. 

MEPs put particular emphasis on the last point, stressing the need for enlargement policies "to be effectively explained and communicated to our citizens" so as to secure "clear and long-lasting support for the EU membership of each candidate country".

Fears of social dumping after the EU's enlargement to Eastern European states are regularly put forward to explain the rejection of the EU Constitution by French voters in 2005, with the migrating "Polish plumber" attaining iconic status in the French press.

Making the connection with current debates, Andrew Duff, a British MEP from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats Group (ALDE), said a lack of communication is having a particularly negative impact on ongoing talks with Turkey, with support for accession dropping in the EU and even Turkey itself.

The report also stresses that accession should not be seen as the end of a process, saying "every enlargement must be followed by adequate consolidation and political concentration" within the Union itself.

The text was prepared before the Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum two weeks ago (EurActiv 13/06/08), and before French President Nicolas Sarkozy's statement at last week's EU summit that enlargement, even to those closest to accession, must be put on hold until after the Lisbon Treaty enters into force.

51 MEPs voted in favour of the report - drafted by German centre-right MEP Elmar Brok (EPP-ED) - with only one deputy rejecting it and nine abstaining. The text still has to be approved by the full plenary.