The European Parliament has approved the admission of 10 new member-states into the EU next year. The parliament's overwhelming vote in favour of enlargement, in 10 separate votes, removes one of the last hurdles in the way of the EU's expansion into central and eastern Europe.
The President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, welcomed the vote, describing it as a powerful signal that the time for enlargement is now. "This is the choice to put an end to a Europe fractured by Europe's barbaric 20th century and to create a Europe reconciled and united around common ideals and common values," he said.
The admission of nine of the candidate countries was uncontroversial, but 10 members of the Bavarian Christian Social Union voted against allowing the Czech Republic to join the EU. They were protesting against the Prague government's failure to distance itself from the Benes decrees, which saw thousands of Sudeten Germans driven from their homes at the end of the second World War.
Despite the protest, 489 MEPs voted in favour of admitting the Czech Republic, 39 voted against and 37 abstained.
A threat by some MEPs to vote against Poland in protest at its support for the US-led war in Iraq failed to materialise. But the Socialist leader, Mr Enrique Baron Crespo, said it was now time for the EU and candidate countries to show unity on Iraq's future.
"At the signing of the accession treaty next week in Athens we should add a declaration on our common values which would support a central role for the United Nations in the reconstruction of Iraq," he said.
EU leaders and the leaders of the 10 candidate countries will sign accession treaties in Athens next week. All 10 applicants except Cyprus are holding referendums on joining the EU. The people of Malta and Slovenia have already voted in favour of EU membership.
A number of MEPs spoke about the historic importance of enlargement, which will increase the EU's population by 70 million. The Christian Democrat MEP, Mr Elmar Brok, said that Europe must now decide how far it can enlarge without overreaching itself.
Enlargement Commissioner, Mr Guenther Verheugen, told the MEPs that they were deciding on one of the most important questions in the history of the continent. "Today's decision concerns the millions of people who paved the way for a free and united Europe with courage and determination. The peoples who have earned their place amongst us. The millions of people who for many years have shouldered the hard and far-reaching reforms needed to build modern western societies," he said.
