Bulgarian leaders popped open the champagne on Saturday as it and five other countries celebrated their invitations to start talks on joining the EU.
Bulgaria is one of five former Communist states in eastern Europe which received the green light at the two-day summit to join six countries already engaged in membership talks. Malta will also join them at the talks.
As the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Mr Ivan Kostov, toasted his country's success, the Slovak Prime Minister, Mr Mikulas Dzurinda, said the invitation was
Slovakia's "greatest historic achievement". President Emil Constantinescu of Romania said the decision would remove an element of fear for the future, which had left many Romanians suggesting life was better under Ceausescu. The EU leaders decided on Friday to add the six new countries, Bulgaria, Malta, Rom ania, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania, doubling the number of states involved in the EU's enlargement plans. Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus have been negotiating EU terms since March 1998.
The Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Ms Nadezhda Mihailova, said her country believed it could join by 2006. Slovakia, Malta, Lithuania and Latvia are more impatient and say they intend to catch up with the six coun tries already engaged in talks. Mr Dzurinda said Slovakia hoped to join at the same time as its partners Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, to be the centre of central Europe.