[FR] EU enlargement: a headless rush?

By voting by a comfortable majority to ratify the Treaty of Nice in the referendum of 19 October 2002, the Irish people removed the last obstacles to the institutional reform essential for the enlargement of the EU. A few months later, the Copenhagen Summit on 12-13 December 2002 confirmed the imminent accession of the first ten candidate countries: eight from Central and Eastern Europe – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – and two from the Mediterranean – Cyprus and Malta. On 16 April 2003, the accession treaties were officially signed with the future Member States, with accession set for 1 May 2004, thus enabling the new Member States to participate in the European Parliament elections in June 2004. The approaching deadlines now confirm a major political and historical fact: despite the obstacles, the most ambitious project of this century, the reunification of Eastern and Western Europe, is on the verge of success.