EU Summit Analysis: EU leaders decide stricter conditions will apply to englargement, writes Jamie Smythin Brussels.
EU leaders declared their two day think-in at the Brussels summit a success yesterday by publicly welcoming a new consensus on enlargement and a clear path towards institutional reform.
However, behind the scenes sharp differences remained over the fate of the constitutional treaty, Turkey, immigration policy and decision-making in the sensitive justice field.
With foreign ministers agreeing to a partial suspension of Turkey's accession talks last Monday there was little of the cantankerous debate that has dominated every past summit dealing with Ankara's 40-year ambition to join the union. Instead, EU leaders spent several hours debating semantics such as the definition of "integration capacity" - the ability of the union to admit new members without undermining its own economic and administrative functioning.
At one point the tedium of listening to 25 interventions got the better of French president Jacques Chirac, who suggested German chancellor, Angela Merkel, should use a bell every three minutes to limit speaking time during the German presidency.
Mr Chirac's comment was an illustration of the effect of enlargement on the internal workings of the EU. Next year the number of interventions will expand to 27 with the entry of Bulgaria and Romania. Any more entrants could turn summit meetings into a chore.
Leaders pledged to consider the ability of the EU to maintain and deepen its own development before admitting new members. This will require the European Commission to undertake impact assessments on how a candidate state's membership would affect key policies of the union. Stricter conditions will be applied to future enlargements and the EU will refrain from setting target dates for accession until talks are close to completion.
There will probably be no new members admitted before reform of the EU institutions, a fact that will disappoint Croatia, which had hoped to join in 2009. Nonetheless, leaders insisted no new criteria for enlargement had been introduced and pledged not to close the door on EU expansion.
"Enlargement makes Europe stronger on the world stage. Enlargement is the most important tool to bring peace and stability on our continent . . . Ours will remain an open house," said commission president José Manuel Barroso after the summit.
Fears of destablising the volatile Balkan region played a part in soothing the fears of states such as Austria, which has been pushing for the borders of Europe to be better defined.
But the question of Turkey's membership clearly remains divisive for member states, which are due to open a new chapter in its accession talks next week. Finnish foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja said yesterday opening such a chapter "would naturally be in the spirit of the decisions we have taken". Yet Cyprus, France and the Netherlands said they would resist this happening before Christmas. It seems the new consensus on enlargement may not survive the week.
The summit also reflected a deep divide over the fate of the EU constitution. A "friends of the constitution" initiative by Spain and Luxembourg designed to breathe new life into the treaty was met with scepticism by France and the Netherlands.
The 18 states that have ratified the constitution will be invited to discuss how revisions to the text to accommodate the concerns of France and the Netherlands - both of which rejected the treaty last year - may affect them. Diplomats said the initiative was an attempt to wrest the debate away from a small group of states lining up against the constitution and to try to promote it.
EU leaders resisted a strong push by EU president Finland to remove the national veto over decisions in the area of justice and police co-operation. They did, though, pledge closer co-operation on immigration, although member states are still jealously retaining their control of their external borders and resisting the concept of a common EU immigration policy.
The debate will now move to Berlin, where Ms Merkel will co-ordinate EU policy for the next six months under the German presidency.