France rejects veiled Muslim wife ...
German-French family seized from yacht off Somalia ... Topolanek thus rejected the view of the current French EU presidency that the ratification of the Lisbon treaty is the condition for further enlargement of the European Union. "I don't want to use the word 'blackmail' but it is a very strong pressure from the French," Topolanek said after the meeting with the two minister who are in charge of the Czech Republic's European and foreign policy. The Lisbon treaty and further EU enlargement are things that concern all 27 EU member states and not only France. "When the French rejected the EU constitution, they received the possibility to solve this problem," Topolanek said, referring to the former European constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch referenda three years ago and replaced by the reform Lisbon treaty. Topolanek said the document approved in Nice in 2000 counted on EU enlargement to include Bulgaria and Romania. "Formally, it is possible to extend the Nice treaty to include a certain addendum that would allow for the admission of Croatia, for instance," Topolanek said. "Where there are three children there is also room for the fourth one," he said. European politicians are expected to discuss the situation that arose after the Lisbon treaty was rejected by the Irish in a recent referendum in October. "Let European Union politicians start looking for ways of how to proceed further during the October meeting of the European Council.
At present, not even an analysis is ready," Topolanek said. Croatia as a EU entry favourite candidate. At the end of June Zagreb announced that it had fulfilled the conditions for admission to the EU. European Commission President Jose Barroso said in March that Croatia would conclude its accession talks in October 2009 on condition that it fulfilled the criteria by the end of June.
(Ceske Noviny)
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