Urgency resolution adopted by the ELDR Congress in Bath (UK), on 18 October 2002

The ELDR Party, meeting in Congress in Bath,

• Welcomes the European Commission's conclusion that ten candidate countries will be ready to join in 2004 provided that they keep up the pace of reform and that monitoring of their preparations will continue;
• Restates its long-term support for this historic process;
• Believes that a reinforced monitoring system is necessary because the Commission's progress reports clearly shows that deficiencies remain in the readiness of the applicant countries; in particular corruption remains widespread in a number of countries and much work still has to be done to implement EU legislation, particularly in the filed of Justice and Home Affairs;
• Recalls that the European Commission has the ability to impose safeguards if the comprehensive monitoring report due six months before enlargement reveals that problems remain;
• Calls on the Commission to transmit to the European Parliament all the regular enlargement progress reports which it will make to Council;
• Welcomes the roadmap laid down for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania by 2007, and calls on the Commission to clearly outline in time for Copenhagen the steps which they need to take;
• While no date for the start of Turkey's accession negotiations can be set until the political criteria are met in full, believes that the recent constitutional reforms introduced by the Turkish government represent a real breakthrough;
• Supports the process of concluding Stabilisation and Association agreements with the countries in South-East Europe;
• Urges the EU to make the necessary institutional reforms for a 10-country enlargement in 2004 to be a success.