European Parliament gives assent to EU expansion

The European Parliament reached the end of a bumpy road to agreement on enlarging the European Union yesterday despite interpreters walking out on strike shortly before the vote. "We have given a simple and clear political message," said parliamentary President Pat Cox. "The time for enlargement has come. And that time is now," he said. Parliament's assent to the accession of the ten, mostly ex-communist, countries was the last hurdle the EU needed to overcome before its 15 member governments can approve an accession treaty at a special summit of EU leaders in Athens on April 16. Not every MEP was happy with the drive to expand the EU. "We reject enlargement on principle," said Jean Marie Couteaux, a French Eurosceptic MEP. "I don't see why we should impose this infernal machine on anyone." A threatened protest vote against Poland, which several MEPs had promised in retaliation for Warsaw's support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq, failed to materialize. (Reuters) A.C.