Brussels, 22/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Addressing the European Parliament foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, Commissioner for enlargement Olli Rehn explained that Plan A had not worked for ratification of the constitutional treaty and as there was no Plan B, they had to apply Plan C for enlargement. C for consolidation, conditionality and communication. Consolidation - in order to consolidate the current enlargement plan “which is already stretched to its limits…the EU should be very cautious about taking on new commitments” explained the Commissioner. At the same time, the EU had to respect its commitments, “Bulgaria and Romania will join the EU in 2007 if they respect the very strict criteria and accession negotiations will begin with Croatia and Turkey as soon as they have fulfilled the criteria” (total cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, for Croatia, signing of additional protocol to the Association Agreement and continued reforms in Turkey). The Commission underlined that, “this means that western Balkan countries maintain their European prospects”. Conditionality. Rehn reiterated that “the best means for candidate countries and potential candidates of achieving their EU prospects is to completely meet their accession conditions”. The Commission reiterated that he would not hesitate to recommend that the Council postpone Bulgarian or Romanian accession if in 2006 the two countries are not entirely ready to apply the Community acquis. The same goes for Croatia and Turkey on opening negotiations: “The Commission will insist on strict respect of the criteria”. Communication. Enlargement is a “history of success” but the EU has to improve its communication to get citizens to better understand the benefits and advantages of successive enlargements. “I am working with Margo Wallström on improving communication. We now have to enter into real dialogue with citizens. We have to move from the technical to the communication phase”. Rehn announced that the Commission would be presenting a proposal next week on strengthening this dialogue with civil society. He also announced that the next monitoring reports on Bulgaria and Romania will be published on 25 October, followed by other reports (Turkey and Croatia) and a strategic paper on enlargement on 9 November.
On Turkey, Rehn highlighted Ankara's need to implement the next legislative texts adopted (under pressure from the EU) for improving human and minority rights. The draft law on foundations in Turkey (linked to non-Muslim communities) is not entirely satisfactory, explained Mr Rehn. Signing the additional protocol to the EU/Turkey Association Agreement - the final technical condition to be met by the government before accession negotiations can begin - Rehn said that he was confident that this would happen in the next few days or weeks, before the 3 October at least. The EU presidency will sign the protocol, he explained. Next Wednesday the Commission will propose the legal framework for accession negotiations.