Brussels, 13/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - A day after the presentation of the European Neighbourhood Strategy (ENS) and the Commission's precision that countries that would benefit from this policy had no perspectives for accession (EUROPE yesterday pp 6/7), Commissioner Günter Verheugen drove the message home on Thursday by saying that the EU over the next few years had to concentrate on consolidating its acquis by developing economic competitiveness and its political weight in the world as well as building closer links with its citizens.
During a conference organised by Etienne Davignon's Friends of Europe, Mr Verheugen said that, "in the years to come, we will have to focus our efforts on deepening the Union and core issues in order to push forward the integration of current Member States". The Commissioner warned that the accession process for Bulgaria and Romania would continue as planned, as well as the work on Croatia (the European Council in June is expected to give the green light to negotiations) and Turkey (the Commission report is expected this autumn) "but in the foreseeable future, there will not be any enlargement of the 'big bang' type". On the contrary, the Commissioner continued, the Twenty Five now had to turn to themselves and concentrate on deepening integration by prioritising four areas:
1) internal reforms, by improving its own operational rules (the constitutional treaty is already contributing to that in large part) but also to increase transparency and "democratic quality" to rally citizens again to the European project;
2) to strengthen economic competitiveness and implement the necessary reforms for safeguarding the "European social model";
3) fight against organised crime and terrorism "as citizens have the right to live in security";
4) to strengthen the role and weight of the EU in the world in order to be a global player.