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E.U. expansion to take a pause

Batuk Gathani

London: The membership of the European Union is set to go up by two with the proposed accession of Bulgaria and Romania into the organisation on January 1, 2007.

Though their membership of the Union is a certainty, there are still misgivings in Brussels that neither country is fully prepared. They have yet to meet the strict monetary, economic, judicial and human rights criteria for membership.

The Governments in both countries have implicitly agreed that they will endeavour to meet the criteria within a short period. The accession of the two Black Sea states will also put a pause in further expansion of the Union.

There is concern in some quarters — especially Britain, Germany and Benelux countries — about the flood of immigrants from the central and east European states with the free flow of labour within the Union boundaries becoming the norm.

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