Poland EU entrance likely in 2005, smaller countries perhaps 2 years sooner

The most likely scenario of European Union (EU) expansion calls for admission of a large group of candidates at the end of 2005, according to chief European Commission (EC) negotiator Eneko Landabru. His statement comes just one day after EU expansion commissioner Gunter Verheugen said that 2003 is a realistic date for admission of a first group of candidates, including Poland. According to Landabru, Poland is unlikely to join that soon. He named two scenarios in which Poland could join around 2005. In the first a small group of two or three countries would join the EU within the next two or three years. Experts say this group could include only small countries which would not strain the EU budget, such as Hungary, Estonia and Slovenia, but certainly not Poland. In the second scenario, these small countries would have to wait until the EU closes its negotiations with the larger candidates, then accepting them all together in 2005. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 10)