European External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten has set out some of the challenges the European Union will have to face now that enlargement is a fact. Speaking last week, he said: "In a few days from now, the most ambitious enlargement ever will definitively draw a line under the divisions that have scarred our continent for decades." He stressed the huge "collective achievement" that the EU has represented as it has grown from six to 25 member states: "What has been put together represents an astonishing - indeed unique - sharing of sovereignty involving today almost every nation state in Europe as present members, members-in-waiting, or aspirant members".

At the same time, he drew attention to some of the realities that the EU must now deal with. The EU "is no longer a cosy club. With ten more member states, maintaining that fiction - already difficult today - will be impossible." And in characteristically observant mode, he remarked on some of the practical implications – and their capacity to reflect deeper change: "It already takes more time than mortal ministers' attention span for a single table round in the Council. And they are sitting so far apart that they can barely catch a glimpse of who is speaking half the time. The political dynamics of the EU are changing, and will change more than most people think with enlargement."

Predominantly, he remarked, "There is no longer a consensus on a common narrative for the EU. The original objectives of post-war reconciliation have less force nearly 60 years on. The end of the Cold War removed the geopolitical case for EU integration as a way of avoiding another European war or as a bulwark against the Soviet threat". And in consequence, "There is no common view on how to deal with the big geopolitical challenges of today like Turkey or our relationship with the United States."

He warned of "a largely understated risk of institutional paralysis - especially in the Council". Enlargement will aggravate the "endless debates" that have been held on issues such as the taxation of savings, the European company statute, or the community patent: "It is inescapable that future decisions - particularly on detailed legal texts - will be even more difficult and cumbersome", Patten predicted. "This may mean that the traditional legislative and regulatory approach to EU business becomes the exception rather than the rule and that as a result we need to find new ways of defining and advancing policy."