The Commission's progress report on Turkey published yesterday (6 November) adopts a softer tone compared to last year's, but continues to insist on reforms, especially in the area of freedom of expression.
Following an extraordinary debate with candidate country delegates, on 20 November Parliament adopted by a large majority a Resolution on the progress towards enlargement.
On 19 November, for the first time, candidate country parliamentarians will take part in an enlargement debate in the European Parliament with a view to adopting a position on the Commission's country reports.
A report on Corruption and Anti-corruption Policy, released by the Open Society Institute (OSI) on 6 November, warns that corruption is a serious and persistent problem in most Central and Eastern European candidate countries. It calls on the EU to devise ways of strengthening its own anti-corruption framework if it is to be prepared to combat corruption in an enlarged Union.
The draft European Parliament's report on enlargement, adopted in the Foreign Affairs Committee on 5 November, urges the candidate countries to strengthen their combat against corruption and improve the transparency of public spending.
On the home stretch The European Union’s events calendar has not been this full for a long time. Before the Copenhagen summit convenes on December 12-13, the EU aims to wrap up negotiations with, presumably, ten candidate countries. The target...
EU Commission set stage for Big Bang enlargement Yesterday, the European Commission released its annual progress reports for the candidate countries and recommended that the negotiations can be closed with ten countries (eight from the CEE region plus Malta and...
EU Accession: D-Day Is Set Relief and realism greet Brussels’ decision to open the doors of the European Union to eight Central and East European countries in 2004. Thirteen years after the collapse of what European Commission President Romano Prodi...
Toward a Better Union It is excellent–as well as historic–that the European Union is laying out the welcome mat for Central and Eastern Europe. The region’s aim should now be to get a better deal for the rural poor and...
The Commission might postpone the publication of its yearly enlargement progress report on Cyprus to avoid upsetting delicate peace negotiations, according to EU diplomats.
Politicians and business leaders attending the European Economic Summit in Salzburg have vowed to finish EU enlargement negotiations on schedule in December despite the unsettled issue of financing.
The Commission has announced that it would issue its enlargement progress report earlier than planned, on 9 October, in order to give the EU Member States more time to discuss it.
