EUROPE will have to be "very clear" on military questions and security policy before negotiations begin to enlarge the Union, the European Parliament was told.
There can be "no grey areas", the chairman of the parliament's foreign affairs, security and defence policy, the Dutch MEP, Mr Arie Oostlander, warned in a briefing on EU enlargement.
Many of the 10 potential applicants from eastern Europe see the Western European Union (WEU) as too weak and want firm links with Nato to be on the current Inter Governmental, Conference (IGC) agenda, he said.
Mr Oostlander, author of a report on enlargement which was debated by the European Parliament yesterday, said the applicants wanted to join Nato and were seeking security guarantees as part of EU membership. If such guarantees could be given, perhaps they would not be so keen on Nato, he told journalists.
Nato member states are said not to want more than three central European states joining - the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - in an effort to appease Russian concerns.
No negotiations on new EU membership would begin until after the IGC review of the Maastricht Treaty had been ratified, Mr Oostlander said. It would be unwise to talk about dates.
The EU Commissioner for External Relations, Mr Hans van den Broek, reaffirmed the European Council's decision that negotiations would begin six months after close of the IGC next year and would take place alongside the applications of Cyprus and Malta. The European Parliament would be "fully involved", he said.
The parliament's efforts to secure full participation in the IGC, which opened last month in Turin and continues under the Irish EU presidency, were criticised by the Fianna Fail MEP and former Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Gerry Collins (Munster), during yesterday's debate on Turin and enlargement in Strasbourg.
Parliament must not allow itself to be "side tracked" by inter-institutional arguments over whether it has a seat or not at the negotiating table, Mr Collins said. The IGC negotiations were by definition the exclusive responsibility of the representatives of the 15 member states, he said.
Both Britain and France have blocked the parliament's active participation, arguing that an IGC is a conference for governments; while the Italian presidency supported a greater role for parliament. The deal agreed entails participation of two representatives in working meetings attached to ministerial sessions and, regular briefings on the negotiations.
Speaking on EU enlargement, Mr Collins said the budget would have to be increased significantly if existing common policies were to continue to work effectively in a greater union.
A straightforward redistribution of existing resources from EU structural funds and the Common Agricultural Policy would result in countries like Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain, and the EU's agricultural regions, taking on a disproportionately large share of the cost.