Today's collapse of the Dutch government has thrown up another obstacle in the EU's path to enlargement, but EU officials said it need not blow the historic plan off course.
Much depends on whether Mr Jan-Peter Balkenende will stay on as Prime Minister in a caretaker cabinet. And whether he will have the legal authority and political backing to endorse enlargement at a vital EU summit in Brussels next week remains to be clarified, diplomats said.
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Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende who resigned today but is likely to lead a caretaker government.
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Publicly, EU leaders voiced confidence that the Netherlands would not block enlargement despite a coalition crisis - partly over the pace of EU expansion - that blew Mr Balkenende's cabinet apart after less than 100 days in office.
Danish Foreign Minister Mr Per Stig Moeller, whose country holds the EU presidency, told reporters in Copenhagen: "I'm sure Holland will not take upon its shoulders the responsibility of stopping the enlargement of the European Union and the healing of the wounds from the Second World War."
Even a caretaker Dutch government should be able to take the necessary decisions to conclude accession talks with the 10 leading candidates in mid-December, he said.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Mr Guenter Verheugen said after talks with Mr Moeller: "We are so close now that it is highly unlikely that a country would say (that) everything we have done in the past is void."
The Dutch crisis comes ahead of Saturday's Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty to adapt EU institutions for up to 25 members, and amid persistent Franco-German disputes over farm subsidies and the funding of enlargement.
Enlargement was one factor in the break-up of Mr Balkenende's unstable centre-right government. In a cabinet row last Friday, his two junior coalition partners, the liberal VVD party and the anti-immigration List Pim Fortuyn (LPF) opposed admitting Poland, Slovakia and Cyprus to the EU in 2004.