The final piece in the enlargement jigsaw was the ratification of the legal document giving shape to the new enlarged EU. All 25 countries had to deposit its formal acceptance of enlargement with the Italian government – and the last to do so, just in time to open up the way for the May 1 enlargement, was the Netherlands, on 21 April.

                   Pre-accession help for the new member states will continue long after their accession. The Czech banking sector should benefit from a €1 million EU Phare project launched last week on implementation of EU payment system standards in the Czech Republic. And the start of ISPA-financed construction on the Zábreh-Krasíkov rail link, which will help speed passengers and freight through the Czech Republic on the key trans-European corridors, was also celebrated last week.

                   The European Ombudsman, Professor P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has completed his tour of the new member states with a visit last week to Poland, where he met President Aleksander Kwasniewski, the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection, Professor Andrzej Zoll, the Speaker of the Senate, Professor Longin Pastusiak, the President of the Constitutional Tribunal, Professor Marek Safjan and the President of the Administrative Court, Professor Roman Hauser.

                   Enlargement will cause EU administrative costs to rise by less than €800 million in 2006, up just over 17% on 2003 levels. There will be some 6,300 new employees, an increase of less than 20%, plus 1000 contract staff. At the same time, the number of countries is increasing by 66%, the number of official languages by 82% and the number of EU citizens by 20%, said the European Commission last week.

                   MEPs return to Strasbourg in early May for a special plenary session to induct the new member states, and will then depart to start campaigning for the European elections in June. The plenary session in Strasbourg on May 3 will mark the official opening of the enlarged European Parliament. The 162 new Members will represent their countries until the European elections.

                   The absence of sustainable EU policies in the areas of agriculture, transport or regional policy will pose serious threats to the environment in the accession countries, if they are not reformed, according to Friends of the Earth Europe. EU enlargement will improve the environment in the new member states because of the implementation of EU environmental legislation, FoEE recognises, and in addition new member states will bring untouched nature and a high degree of biodiversity as a gift into the EU. But there is a need for fast implementation of environmental legislation in the new member states.

                   The EPP-ED Group of the European Parliament has expressed concern that the Romanian authorities organising the local elections on 6 June have rejected the Hungarian Civic Union as an eligible party "for purely legalistic reasons". Romania is guilty of limiting the freedom of elections, implementing restrictions of electoral rules as well as raising the electoral threshold unjustifiably – all practices which are completely contrary to the electoral rules and practices of the European Union, according to Hans-Gert Poettering, chairman of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament, and József Szájer, leader of the Hungarian delegation in the EPP-ED Group.

                   Ensuring the lowest possible cost of electricity generation will be the primary objective in forthcoming negotiations with potential investors for a second nuclear power plant in Bulgaria, according to Krassimir Nikolov, who heads an interdepartmental government commission in charge of preparations for the construction of the Belene nuclear power plant. An environmental impact assessment for the future plant recommends a light-water reactor at Belene, for environmental reasons.

                   To help meet the challenge of creating a strong capital market in the acceding states, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is committing up to €60 million to the Polish Enterprise Fund V, a follow-up fund to earlier successful funds managed by Enterprise Investors. The Fund will focus on investments in Poland. But it will also invest up to 40% of the total capital in the central European region, with the main focus outside Poland on Romania and Bulgaria.

                   Many of the acceding states still need "a step change before approaching the level of sustainability implicit in EU transport policy-making", according to the Brussels lobby group, Transport & Environment. Spending on large road schemes is far more advanced than spending on public transport, cycling and walking projects, says T&E. And hasty partial privatisation of the rail network in some accession countries has made it difficult to secure EU funding for rail.

                   Turkish television maker Beko Elektronik has won European Commission clearance for its bid - with Alba of the UK - to take over Grundig's consumer electronics development and marketing. The Commission approved the deal last week, after deciding that no competition problems would be raised in the European television market. Beko Elektronik, a subsidiary of Turkish industrial group Koç Holdings, Beko manufactures and sells mainly non-branded colour television sets to original equipment manufacturers.

                   At a hearing he organised in Brussels last week on labour migration in the enlarged EU, Hungarian observer MEP István Szent-Ivanyi said: "I believe that myths about migrants are threatening to overshadow what is an historic enlargement of the European Union." He insisted "there is no reason to paint the picture of an imminent 'invasion' from the East."

                   In the ten acceding countries, average nominal pay increases rose to 8.7% in 2003, up from 8.1% in 2002, while on average real pay increased by 1.1%, from 2.8% in 2002 to 3.9% in 2003, according to the annual update on pay from the EU's Industrial Relations Observatory in Dublin.

                   Enlargement will be a great challenge for the commerce sector, says EuroCommerce. It will mean opportunities and obligations for entrepreneurs, and it will require the new member states to implement all EU legislation. "Tremendous efforts will be required to ensure this is done properly", it warns, and "special attention should be given to resisting moves towards protectionism".

                   The European Citizen Action Service called last week on EU institutions and governments to commit themselves to end the transitional period for free movement of workers and border controls between the 10 and the 15 within two years at the latest. According to Tony Venables, ECAS director, "These transitional measures are a virus which can undermine the internal market across the 25 unless the contagious element is stopped now."

                    

Agenda

See also the new "Enlargement events calendar" on the DG Enlargement web site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/events/calendar.htm. This gives a run-down of public events related to the enlargement of the EU taking place in al current and future member states.

(note: now that acceding states take part in Council meetings and EP and ESC plenaries, these will from now on be listed in this calendar)