Meeting today for their bi-annual summit, the European Liberal Democrat Leaders welcomed Bulgaria and Romania’s accession to the EU and the Commissioner-designates Meglena Kuneva and Leonard Orban, and congratulated Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen for his successful Finnish Presidency of the EU. ELDR Party President Annemie Neyts stressed the strong convergence of views on the EU enlargement process among the ELDR Leaders, and notably Andrus Ansip, Prime Minister of Estonia, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, Prime Minister of Romania, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark, Matti Vanhanen, Prime Minister of Finland, Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium and Graham Watson, ALDE Group Leader, in those terms: “The European Liberal Democrats believe that all institutional arrangements should be salvaged from the Constitutional Treaty and that institutional reforms are necessary before the EU enlarges to any new Member State. However, we need to make our citizens understand that enlargement has been a success story both for the old and new Member States. Enlargement brings about democracy, stability, an extended market, more growth and jobs, and the capacity to solve common issues together”. Matti Vanhanen expressed his will to establish a new consensus on enlargement. “I am a strong supporter of the EU enlargement process. The goal remains the integration of Turkey in the EU”. Commenting on his six months at the helm of the EU, Matti Vanhanen said that he was very pleased with the adoption of the Services directive and REACH, two major pieces of legislation. Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he hopes that Croatia can serve as an example for the Balkans. “We need to include the Western Balkans in the EU to extend freedom, peace and prosperity, provided they fulfill the Copenhagen criteria,” he stated. On Turkey, the Danish Prime Minister congratulated Matti Vanhanen for sending the right signal: the negotiations are not completely suspended but it bears consequences not to fulfill the necessary criteria. “It is our European interest to keep Turkey on a reform path. But on the other hand, The Turks must understand that they have to adapt to the European legislation and not the other way round”. Roger Albinyana, President of LYMEC (European Liberal Youth), made a bold proposal to connect with the citizens and moving towards the EU Constitution. “The 2009 European elections will be an excellent framework to give the voice to MEPs so that they can draft a new constitution for Europe. Yes to a small treaty, yes to a constituent assembly drafting the new treaty!” he stated.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information, please contact Myriam Cornillet (mcornillet@eldr.org), 00 32 2 237 01 43 or 00 32 485 99 40 56.Note to the editor: The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, aisbl (ELDR Party) brings together 51 political parties with common liberal, democratic and reform ideals and is the forum for member parties to develop a co-ordinated policy.