During their summit on 15 June, European Liberal Democrats’ Prime Ministers, Foreign and European Affairs ministers and party leaders affirmed that while the absorption capacity must be taken into account, it must not become an additional criteria to stop further EU enlargement. They restated their commitment to enlarge and deepen Europe. Summarising the discussions between the Prime Ministers, Annemie Neyts, European Liberal Democrat President stated: “In the liberal democrat family, we reaffirm our conviction that Bulgaria and Romania should become EU members on 1 January 2007. We are fully united in honouring commitments that have been made on enlargement to Croatia, the Western Balkan States and Turkey. For accession negotiations to be successful, all the criteria have to be fulfilled. Accession negotiations are an open-ended process but accession should be the aim. The current ones will take many years and will leave time for the adaptation of the EU institutions”. Read more ...

 European Liberal Democrats’ Leaders will have a debate on the shaping of a modern and motivating EU during their summit ahead of the European Council on 15 June. Annemie Neyts, President of the ELDR Party will present to the ELDR Prime Ministers - Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium), Matti Vanhanen (Finland), Calin Popescu-Tariceanu (Romania), Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Denmark) and Andrus Ansip (Estonia) - the results of the reflection on the Future of the EU in the liberal democrat political family. Read more ...