WORLD
THE BATTALION
7A
Thursday, April 10, 2003
April 10,
E.U. plans to add 10 new states
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By Constant Brand
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BRUSSELS, Belgium —The European
Union’s parliament endorsed the bloc’s
historic expansion eastward Wednesday,
but not without cautioning current and
future members to fulfill their commit
ments so the larger union can “speak with
a common voice.”
In separate votes for each of the 10 acced
ing nations, the 626-member EU assembly
overwhelmingly supported the expansion
scheduled for May 1, 2004. Those 10 nations
are Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia,
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia,
Slovakia, Malta and Cyprus.
The expansion will be the union’s fifth
and largest since its founding in 1957. It cur
rently has 15 members.
“Finally, after all the arguments and after
all the debates, we get the defining
moment,” European Parliament President
Pat Cox said. “The time for enlargement has
come and the time is now.”
While approving the expansion, the EU
assembly in Strasbourg, France, warned that
the club’s current and future members had to
commit to building an “ever-closer union.”
The assembly insisted that a 25-member
EU “speak with a common voice in world
politics” and urged EU capitals to show “a
stronger sense of solidarity” — a reference
to the gaping rift within Europe over Iraq.
The European Parliament also urged
newcomers to “fulfill commitments” and
fix remaining problems, especially in fight
ing corruption, crime and in protecting
minority rights.
The expansion will cost the present
European Union another $41 billion in aid
over three years to boost the new member’s
economies, notably by supporting farmers,
building roads or replacing Soviet-era
nuclear power plants.
The new members’ entries still have to be
European Union closer
to expansion
The European Union s parliament
ratified a historic expansion
Wednesday, making it nearly
certain that 10 mostly
eastern European countries
will join the Woe next year
SWE
Existing
members
Candidate
nations
0 250 mi
GREECE oTsdkm
4
TA CYPRUS- 1
SOURCES Associated Press; ESRI
approved by national legislatures in the cur
rent EU members, and that is considered
highly likely. The candidates also are hold
ing referendums to ratify membership, with
Malta and Slovenia already voting in favor
and Hungary voting Saturday.
Ewa Haczyk, a spokeswoman for Polish
government’s negotiating team with the EU,
said the vote is “of colossal significance”
and recognizes the democratic and econom
ic reforms undertaken in Poland since com
munism fell in 1989.
In Hungary, the government welcomed
the EU assembly’s vote.
“Now the decision is in our hands, this
historic chance to rise with the developed
side of Europe,” Foreign Minister Laszlo
Kovacs said in Budapest.
On average, more than 500 of the parlia
ment’s 626 members voted in favor of the
expansion. Not all assembly members were
present Wednesday.
The Czech Republic received the most
“no” votes, with 39. Ten German conserva
tives voted against it to protest the Czech
Republic’s refusal to repeal laws expelling
ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia after
World War II.
Leaders from the 10 new states will sign
their accession treaties in Athens, Greece,
next Wednesday at a special EU summit.
With the new members, the EU will sur
pass the North American Free Trade
Agreement as the world’s largest market.
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Officer Elections: April 22 nd
2003
Applications can be found on
line at www.tainu.edu/ isa
and are due on April 15 th , by
5:00 p.m. at the ISS front desk
in Bizzell Hall East.
ISA represents an international student
body of over 3700 students and
promotes international cultural
awareness on the Texas A&M campus.
Positions available:
President
VP of Operations
VT of Finance
VP of Internal Programs
VP of External Programs
VP of Marketing
VP of Human Resources
VP of Information Technology
U.S. applicants also encouraged
Cuba defends
prosecution
of 75 citizens
U M
I tier
'tioiu. ”
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba
defended its speedy prosecu
tion of 75 dissidents, saying
[Wednesday it had to protect
itself against U.S. attempts to
subvert the government. It also
maintained that the cases’ tim
ing had nothing to do with war
in Iraq.
The United States, which has
dismissed the Cuban allegations,
condemned the crackdown.
“This is symptomatic of the dic
tatorship of the Cuban regime,”
White House press secretary Ari
Fleischer said Wednesday.
The known sentences for 57
of the government opponents
•i who were tried ranged from 6
to 28 years. The remaining 18
sentences were expected by
week’s end. None of the trials
ihas lasted more than one day,
[activists said. There were no
reports of acquittals.
“We have been patient, we
have been tolerant,” Foreign
Ministry Felipe Perez Roque
; said. “But we have been obligat
ed to apply our laws.”
Perez Roque also denied
international criticism that the
arrests and convictions over the
course of three weeks were
timed so that the world’s atten-
| tion would be focused on war.
“This decision was taken
before the war on Iraq,” Perez
Roque said.
The defendants included inde
pendent journalists, pro-democra
cy activists, opposition party lead-
i ers and other dissidents.
They were arrested last
month and accused of receiving
American government funds
and collaborating with U.S.
diplomats to undermine the
socialist state.
The United Nations also
protested against the quick trials.
. “There are questions about
the fairness of such expedited
proceedings,” said United
Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights Sergio Vieira de
Mello in Geneva. “Cuba must
ensure that the accused benefit
from due process, including the
right to an adequate defense.”
Perez Roque presented letters
and detailed lists of payments
among numerous documents he
said proved the defendants were
linked to and receiving money
from the U.S. government.
Many of the payments the
foreign minister mentioned
appeared to come from Miami-
or Washington-based groups that
receive funds from the U.S.
Agency for International
Development to support the
opposition and prepare for a
transition in Cuba.
The foreign minister also said
that the legal proceedings strict
ly followed Cuban law, with all
defendants represented by attor
neys. All have the right to
appeal, he said.
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