Brussels - European Union foreign ministers open five months of horsetrading today over the scale and timing of expansion to the east.
The ministers will hold a first discussion of a European
Commission blueprint unveiled last week which recommended opening entry talks with five out of 10 eastern bloc applicants early next year.
The Commission said in its Agenda 2000 policy blueprint that
Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia and Slovenia were ready to join Cyprus in membership talks. Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia,
Bulgaria and Romania were far from ready and should be held over until later, it said.
But last month's Amsterdam summit failed to agree on the institutional changes necessary for a bloc with up to a dozen new members. - (Reuter)
