The timetable for the enlargement of the European Union remains unchanged as EU leaders ended their two-day summit in Spain saying they hoped 10 countries would finish entry talks this year.
But European Commission President Romano Prodi warned "there will be a lot of work to be done to meet that deadline."
Mr Prodi’s comments will reassure Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, who hope to join by mid-2004. However, the leaders avoided naming countries, saying enlargement would go ahead "with those who are ready".
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who hosted the summit in Seville, said the enlargement process "has been given a tremendous filip".
But despite leaders' determination, the EU faces a tight deadline and has left the most prickly questions, which involve money and who pays what, to the end.
To join, applicant countries must enact sweeping economic reforms after years of central planning, put thousands of pages of EU legislation onto the statute books and reform communist-era judiciaries and civil services.
The EU and candidate countries must also overcome widespread divisions agriculture. Many member states are unlikely to agree to let expansion go ahead if Poland is not on board, so a delay in talks with Warsaw would be likely to delay the entire process.
The leaders also encouraged Romania and Bulgaria to continue working towards integration despite the difficulties the relatively poor countries are experiencing in meeting accession requirements.
AFP