By CATERINE FIELD Herald correspondent
PARIS - The European Union is putting the final touches to a major summit this week that should erase the artificial divide which still runs down the centre of Europe.
The East-West, rich-poor division of Europe persists even though 13 years have passed since the opening of the Berlin Wall swept the Communist Bloc away. In that time, the fragile new democracies of the East have been hammering away at the 15-member EU's clubhouse, desperate for its prosperity and stability. The EU's response has been "yes, but later" and to focus on its own consolidation, notably by introducing the single currency, the euro.
"Later" has now arrived. And, if last-minute talks go well, the summit in Copenhagen on Thursday and Friday will be the dramatic opening to a new chapter in European history, and a shakeup for all of its citizens.
Ten countries are poised to join the EU's ranks in 2004, expanding the numbers to 25.
It will create the world's largest trade bloc and a single, border-free market for goods and services and movement of workers. It will have a population of more than 450 million and a GDP of US$10 trillion ($19.8 trillion), which compares with 289 million Americans with a GDP of US$10.8 trillion today.
The enlargement will take the EU's borders from Russia and Ukraine in the northeast, to the Mediterranean and North Africa in the south and southwest and to the Balkans in the southeast.
Supporters of enlargement say this expansion represents a historic opportunity to unite Europe peacefully after generations of division and consolidate stability and prosperity across the continent.
The summit comes less than a month after Nato gave the green light to admitting seven former Communist states to its ranks. Former Warsaw Pact adversaries, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined Nato in 1999.
"Europe is set for dramatic change," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"Together, the expansion of Nato and the enlargement of the European Union amount to no less than the creation of a new Europe."
Wrangling over subsidies and contributions could indeed continue into a final bout of brinksmanship before the summit as both EU members and candidate states wrestle to get the best deal possible.
The 10 candidates are Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
According to EU sources, six of them have accepted in principle a beefed-up financial offer, but four, notably Poland, are holding out for more.
Poland, the largest of the 10 candidate states, is particularly angry about help for agriculture, saying EU's farm subsidies for new members are not generous enough.
Denmark's proposals would see the new member states immediately receive farm subsidies at 40 per cent of the amount enjoyed by the present 15 members.
Brussels has suggested offering the candidates 25 per cent. Enlargement is likely to cost 25 billion euros ($50 billion) over the first three years - assuming 10 new members join in 2004.
"This should be a beautiful, historic moment - reuniting the European continent and healing the post-war divisions," said Heather Grabbe, Research Director of the Brussels-based Centre for European Reform.
"However, both the candidates and the EU appear to have lost sight of this moment's significance, as they bicker about milk quotas and farm aid."
Other big changes are in sight in the EU institutions themselves. For instance, an EU comprising 25 nations would be ungovernable unless the right to veto is scaled back in the Council of Ministers, the top decision-making EU body.
A bigger unresolved problem is what to do about Turkey. The EU has always had misgivings about whether to admit a predominantly Muslim country with a large population and history of instability.
For years, it has been able to postpone the question, arguing that Turkey does not meet the EU's democratic standards, and hiding behind a potential veto by Turkey's rival Greece over the question of Cyprus, which is divided into Turkish and Cypriot communities.
Those tactics are now rapidly losing strength, given the recent peaceful transition of power in Ankara in elections that saw a moderate Islamic party take the helm and announce plans to institute political reforms. Cautious progress, too, is being made on Cyprus, with an EU plan for a confederated state.
Turkey first applied for EU membership in 1987 and has watched as eight countries that were then allied with the Soviet Union have overtaken Ankara in the accession race. It wants the Copenhagen summit to set a firm date for accession talks, but Denmark says this is out of the question until it sees the results of the political reforms.
"The only [candidate] country without a date is Turkey. The fact that Turkey has not been given a date is a double standard in itself. There's no other way to explain it," said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the governing Justice and Development Party.
He warned that the EU would have to live with the consequences if it failed to harness Turkey's "psychological readiness" to join the bloc.
Turkey's case is being championed by the United States, which needs Ankara's support for using Turkish soil as a base for its Air Force in any attack on Iraq.
US officials have been talking up the Turkish application, saying its acceptance would be a sign to Muslim countries that democracy and Islam can go together.
Poverty divide for scrap heap at historic summit
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