Germany's Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said yesterday the European Union must stick to its obligations for further expansion of the 25-member bloc, despite growing opposition to enlargement.
 
Earlier yesterday, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the EU should suspend enlargement after letting Bulgaria and Romania in following the French and Dutch voters' rejection of the EU constitution, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to Turkey's EU entry bid.

"In my view, we must carry out commitments (to expand the EU), even if they are unpopular," Fischer told a meeting of Polish diplomats in Warsaw. He said, however, that for further enlargement to succeed, the institutions of the EU must be strengthened.

"The EU must do what it promised to do. However, if we think we can enlarge without deepening integration and closing ranks, then from this crisis we can tumble into a bigger one," he said.

Meanwhile, Sarkozy, head of France's governing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), said Bulgaria and Romania should be allowed to join as planned as their accession process was too far gone to stop now.

"We have to suspend enlargement at least until the institutions have been modernized," Sarkozy said after talks with French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

The French prime minister was meeting with leaders of all major parties yesterday to discuss French policy towards Europe in the wake of voters' firm rejection of the EU charter in a May 29 referendum. The constitution was designed to ensure smoother decision-making in the bloc following its enlargement from 15 to 25 members in May last year.

During the EU charter campaign Sarkozy strongly opposed Turkey's entry into the bloc and called for Ankara to sign a privileged partnership accord with the EU instead.

Although not mentioned by name, Turkey was clearly his target again yesterday when he said: "Europe cannot enlarge indefinitely."

Sarkozy called for Europe to focus its energies on concrete projects, notably in the fields of energy and giving tax breaks to economically depressed areas.

Europe's six biggest countries should work together to become a powerful motor for a new Europe, he added.

(China Daily June 28, 2005)