European enlargement under threat from looming ultra-nationalism

The European Union's Enlargement Commissioner, Guenter Verheugen, warned on Monday that far-right gains in elections in Europe, where new ballots are due soon in France and Germany, could threaten plans to expand the Union. "There is a clear danger that the window which was opened for enlargement is already closing," he told journalists in Copenhagen after meeting Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller. Verheugen said that Poland, too, provided cause for concern as nationalists were gaining ground. Opinion polls in Poland show most Poles favor EU membership, but anti-EU parties such as Lepper's Samoobrona party and the arch-nationalist Polish Families League, which together took around 17% of the votes in last year's election, are making gaining new ground after Le Pen's spectacular results in France. Verheugen urged governments in Europe to communicate even more urgently with their citizens on the issue of enlargement. (Reuters) A.K.