The European Commission has called for the EU to bring six more countries into formal accession negotiations at the Helsinki summit. Talks with Romania and Bulgaria though should only begin if specific tough preconditions are met, notably in the former's case in respect of its appalling treatment of orphans, and in the latter's, its nuclear programme.
Reporting to the European Parliament, the president of the Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, said they had to grasp an historic opportunity. "For the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire," he said, "we have the opportunity to unite Europe - and this time it will not be by force or arms but on the basis of shared ideals and common rules."
He said all the applicants were making "huge" efforts to prepare for membership and it was important both for them and the EU to keep up the momentum.
While acknowledging that some applicants clearly do not meet the economic criteria set out in Copenhagen as preconditions for starting negotiations, he warned member-states that if they were not flexible, there was a danger the applicants could "become disillusioned and turn their backs on us". All meet the basic democratic political criteria, he said.
Mr Prodi will report to EU leaders on the issue at the Tampere summit on Friday evening. If the Commission strategy is approved at Helsinki, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Malta will join the negotiations started last year with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus.
The pace of talks will be "multi-speed" and depend very much on the readiness of each of the applicants. Bulgaria, however, should be asked ahead of talks to set an acceptable date for the closure of its four unsafe nuclear plants at Kozloduy, and, like Romania, to step up significantly the pace of economic reform, the Commission argues.
Negotiations with Romania "should not begin until the Romanian authorities have acted decisively and effectively to reform their childcare institutions and provide adequate funds for them," Mr Prodi said.
The Commission's report on Romania says the situation of more than 100,000 children in institutional care has seriously deteriorated with the government failing to make the issue a political priority.
Turkey should be given the status of candidate, although negotiations could only start once a series of political criteria are met, the Commission recommends.
The Commission also urges in its annual reports on the state of preparedness of the applicants, that the EU should set itself the target date of the end of 2002 to complete its own preparations, such as treaty changes, for the first accession. It falls short however of setting any target dates for actual accessions.
Importantly, the Commission has also set out principles to guide negotiations about any transition periods for new members, insisting that any transitional provisions relating to the functioning of the single market must be very short-term, while, where considerable adaptations are required at major cost, such periods could be longer.
The recommendations mark an important rethink in the EU's accession strategy in several respects. Experience of opening negotiations with some of the candidates has left those omitted resenting the snub and some evidence of demotivation of their internal reform.
Also, in the wake of the Kosovo conflict, there has been an awareness of the need to establish another tier of potential members with whom a more formalised relationship could be developed, short of actual negotiations on accession. These include the Balkan states of former Yugoslavia as well as Albania, then Russia and Ukraine, and the Maghreb countries of north Africa.
Mr Prodi spoke of the need to create a new "virtual membership" for the Balkan states - "giving them access to the stimulus and advantages of close co-operation even before they are ready for full membership."
There has been the need to bite the bullet on Turkey - a new willingness to express formally the Turkish aspiration to join for fear that continuing the old arms-length relationship would drive Ankara away. The Commission also wants the EU to enter into closer dialogue with Turkey, particularly on human rights where it says the situation has not improved, and to prepare an accession partnership agreement.
In the reports on the individual accession states, Slovakia's improved human rights record is noted while continued concerns are expressed about linguistic rights for the Russian minorities in Estonia and Latvia and for the rights of the Roma in many of the applicant countries.
All the candidates with the exception of Slovakia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania, are considered to be functioning market economies. Slovakia and Lithuania are considered close, while Bulgaria has made progress.
"The economic situation in Romania is very worrying and sustained efforts will be needed to put a functioning market economy in place," the Commission says.
In terms of institutional and legal preparations for membership, the Commission contrasts a steady pace of change in Hungary, Latvia and Bulgaria while complaining that legislative work in Poland and the Czech Republic remains sluggish.
The reports also note widespread corruption, exacerbated by low salaries in the public service and bureaucratic controls.