Poland's hope to join EU called into question following collapse of Dutch gov't

The sudden collapse of the Dutch government has placed a question mark over the expansion of the European Union and Poland's place in it. Populist deputies in the Dutch Parliament have repeatedly declared that Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania and Latvia are not sufficiently ready to join the EU. With the government having been recalled, this means that the caretaker government is not expected to take any binding decisions on EU expansion. If, after fresh general elections, the new Dutch government does agree to EU enlargement, this would still delay the enlargement process by at least six months. Leading EU politicians are trying to calm the fears of candidate countries. "Ten states are already on the train heading to Copenhagen and nothing will stop this," said the EU High Representative for Security Javier Solana. EU Expansion Commissionaire Gunter Veheugen explained, "Negotiations are too far advanced. It is impossible that the Hague suddenly considers all that has been done so far as null and void." Another threat to EU expansion is Saturday's referendum in Ireland, where the Irish could refuse to accept the Nice Treaty. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A6, Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1) M.T.