Ireland, which has benefited enormously from EU economic ties, turned down a treaty concerning EU expansion in a recent referendum.
The European Union is to hold an informal summit in Klagenfurt, Austria, to discuss the world economy, EU expansion into eastern Europe and the crisis in Kosovo.
And moves towards EU expansion has not found favour everywhere.
French used to be the lingua franca for most EU business, but with the expansion of the EU to 25 member states, English is becoming even more dominant.
She was instrumental in ensuring passage of the Lisbon treaty, which is supposed to help the EU cope with its expansion to 27 members and creates machinery for an EU foreign policy.
EU's expansion will affect them, and how they will earn a different living.
Europe's internal challenges are immense, particularly the EU's expansion from 15 members to 25 and Germany's and France's need to find the will to initiate fundamental, Margaret Thatcher-like reforms to revivify their stagnant economies.
EU's overdue expansion, hard decisions must be taken within the next few days.
Chirac's spokeswoman added that the leaders were expected to send a "message of confidence" to the mostly eastern European aspirants that the EU remained committed to expansion.
One of the key drivers of the change was the expansion of the EU and the arrival of Polish workers.
At the time there were concerns that the expansion of the EU's borders would lead to a surge in both legal and illegal immigration.
It refers not to the French motorway running east from Marseille, but the eight poor countries from Eastern Europe who joined the EU in the largest single expansion since its creation in 1957.
London does not want to pay for the expansion of the EU. An accord between the leaders of the 25 came apart over the opposition of Great Britain to bearing the costs of expansion falling upon that country.
The lesson for the EU, thus, is not that expansion should stop, but that it needs to discriminate between those countries that are ready for membership and those that aren't.
But institutional reform and changes to EU funding will have to take place before expansion can take place.
EU's other main current adventure, expansion to the east, insisting that their political judgments on candidates should override the commission's procedural ones.
The House of Lords European Union Committee published a report on 11 April 2011 that found that with the increasing size of the EU's membership, coupled with the expansion of the Court of Justice of the European Union's jurisdiction since the Lisbon Treaty, the institution was struggling to manage its workload.
"We do believe that all the environment issues linked to potential expansion at Heathrow can be overcome and that EU regulations on airports can be met, " the BA spokesman said.
And the timetable for expansion appears to have slipped, even as the prospect of EU membership for the Balkan states was being raised by politicians as a way of aiding stabilisation, security, democratisation and economic rehabilitation of the region.
The Slovak vote is the last country vote of the 17 EU members, and many were thinking the Slovaks would vote down the bailout expansion.
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Its expansion from 15 members to 25 should create pressure for making the EU what it always should have been--a vast free-trade area with open borders and, for most members, a common currency.
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