EU Commission President Mr Romano Prodi has warned against putting off a necessary debate on where the borders of an enlarged European Union should be drawn, and called for EU voters to decide the issue.
In an interview published today, Mr Prodi said peoples must express themselves directly or through their parliaments on Europe's natural borders.The European Union is poised to take in 10 new members from eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. Mr Prodi's comments come less than a week before an EU summit that is to decide on a date for Turkish membership talks.
"The Union, more than ever, needs an idea and a soul. As we are about to enlarge we must understand what we are doing and what we want to be," Mr Prodi told the newspaper La Repubblica.
Turkey has called on European Union leaders to set a date for the opening of membership talks when they meet in Copenhagen next week. But Prodi said the real issue was not Turkey.
"It is wrong and not to the point whether or not Turkey should be a member," he said. "Another two, Romania and Bulgaria, will probably join in 2007. Conditions for the Balkans countries in the former Yugoslavia to join are slowly improving."
"And some people even want Russia to become a Union member. At this point we are at a crossroads where we have to realize what we are doing. To expand also means to measure one's ability to strengthen our institutions," Mr Prodi added.
Prodi stressed that the decision to recognize Ankara's status as a candidate was made in 1999 and said, "I must not only respect it but I must also do everything to create the conditions for a launch of the negotiation process." "The debate (on Europe's future borders) can no longer be put off," he said.