Free Republic

The European Commission is due to announce the timetable it will adopt for admitting Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union. It is expected that Bucharest and Sofia will be told they can join on 1 January 2007 - but under strict conditions. They will be checked for progress in curbing organised crime, controlling animal disease and instituting procedures for administering farm aid. The conditions are tougher than imposed on previous new members, observers say. The BBC's Oana Lungescu in Strasbourg says they are intended both as a reassurance for EU citizens, only half of whom support further enlargement, and...

Newcomers Reflect on a Year in the EU By ANDREA DUDIKOVA, Associated Press Writer ZAHORSKA VES, Slovakia - Day in and out, Frantisek Danihel steers his ferry back and forth over the slow-moving Morava River, linking what were two separate worlds only a year ago — the European Union and its aspiring members. On a formal level, the barriers dissolved on May 1, 2004, when Slovakia and nine other mostly former communist nations joined what they had long viewed as an exclusive Western club. Yet opinions are mixed among EU newcomers about how much they have gained from membership and...

Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged the European Union to step up its search for support of enlargement in order to fend off the rise of Europe's far-right."We have to redouble our efforts to generate popular support for enlargement," Straw told The Times. "An enlarged EU should be a buttress against extremism.""The stock in trade of the far-right down the ages has been xenophobia, the generation of fear and hatred of people who are not 'like us'," said Straw."This is no different. As usual their analysis and prescriptions are wrong. If they are seriously worried about crime and illegal immigration...