Strasbourg, 15/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday afternoon, the European Parliament heard the proposals of Elmar Brok (EPP/ED, Germany) on the enlargement strategy of the Union, in which the president of the committee on foreign affairs started off by stating that the Union, in its current situation, is not able to absorb any future waves of enlargement, because it would be running the risk of "losing itself as a political project". Before the debate on his report (on which EUROPE will return), Mr Brok explained that he will therefore asked the European Commission to define, by the end of the year, the "nature" of the Union and, above all, it's "absorption capacity", a notion which, he feels, should be the determining criterion for any future expansion. Even if the candidate country fulfils the conditions to join Union, if this criterion cannot be respected, then accession should be refused, he said, proposing his well known "third way", he is "intermediate solution" between accession and unable policy, which would allow interested countries to adopt, on a step-by-step basis, certain aspects of the Community acquis, as part of the European Economic Area. It would then be up to these countries to decide whether this solution is satisfactory to them, or whether they want to make progress towards an accession. This is not any "debate on Turkey", stressed the rapporteur before press, referring to, amongst others, Norway, as one of the countries which may decide to take up this alternative which, he added, is different from the neighbourhood policy in its multilateral nature, amongst other things.
What will be done if, in the future, a referendum throughout the Union was required in cases of enlargement (which the French Constitution already provides for, once Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia have acceded), and if a Member State should take position against the accession of a candidate country? It is precisely in this kind of situation, Mr Brok replied, that the "third way" would prove its worth, because the candidate country could still benefit from the Community acquis. Certain countries, which are in favour of future waves of enlargement, but against the internal reform of the Union: according to Mr Brok, this attitude is unacceptable.