EU leaders look to toughen line on new members

BRUSSELS, Dec 14 (Reuters) European Union leaders will seek at a summit starting today to reassure sceptical voters by toughening policy on further enlargement of the bloc while leaving the door ajar for a queue of aspiring nations.

The two-day Brussels summit comes after the 25-member bloc agreed on Monday to a partial freeze in Turkey's entry talks, a move that should help assuage some of those who question the European credentials of the predominately Muslim country.

According to a draft final statement for the meeting, EU leaders will reaffirm a commitment eventually to admit Turkey, as well as the states of the western Balkans -- Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

But leaders will make clear that before taking in any more countries, the EU must reform its creaking institutions -- a process Germany aims to revive when it takes over the rotating presidency from Finland next month.

They will also call for stricter monitoring of candidates' progress on tough issues such as fighting corruption, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressing the EU had to be tough on making sure new entrants fully meet membership criteria.

''I am not saying this as a threat but as an incentive for countries who want to join and for the community,'' Merkel told German parliament before heading for Brussels.

Qualms about Turkey's EU bid contributed to last year's rejection by French and Dutch voters of a constitution designed to revamp EU structures for taking in further members after the scheduled entry of Romania and Bulgaria on January 1.

LINGUISTIC SHIFT The accession of those two states will complete a wave of expansion that began in 2004 when the EU admitted 10 mostly ex-communist central and eastern European countries.

Leaders will try to draw the lessons from this ''big bang'' and a public backlash of ''enlargement fatigue'' it prompted, debating how fast and how far future enlargement should go.

''If we want to move ahead with enlargement seriously, we must get the backing of public opinion and explain the benefits of the process,'' EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told Italian newspaper La Stampa.

In a subtle linguistic shift, EU states will accept a duty to improve capacity to ''integrate'' new members and eschew the loaded term ''absorption capacity'', which states such as France and Austria had cited to try to erect roadblocks to Turkey.

Turkey's backers, including Britain and Sweden, see it as a vital strategic link with the Muslim world.

EU law must still be amended to allow new members to join, but scepticism of institutional reform in a number of member countries means that Croatia, at the front of the EU queue, will likely have to wait until at least 2010 for entry.

Serbia's bid, stalled by its failure to cooperate in bringing war-crimes suspects to trial, is expected to come up at the summit, with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi seeking a quick resumption of its EU talks.

However, Britain, France and others are expected to argue successfully for an existing formula requiring Belgrade first to show full cooperation with the UN war-crimes tribunal.

Leaders will also study how to help states such as Spain, Italy and Malta cope with sudden influxes of migrants and are due to agree to pool their border guards to prevent illegal migrants reaching the bloc by sea, according to a draft accord.

But diplomats said they will make little headway on boosting wider criminal justice and police cooperation, with a number of states wary of surrendering sovereignty in those areas.

REUTERS BJP HT1737