Newish parties wholeheartedly opposed to EU membership did well in two of the Union's biggest countries.
What happens next revolves around a congress next week of the ruling Independence Party, a broad centre-right coalition hostile to EU membership.
The Welsh Government's "appalling track record on inward investment" he said, hardly pointed to EU membership paving the way to success on that front.
Some 3.7 million people are eligible to vote in what officials have described as a "historic" vote after a 10-year journey to EU membership.
The Slovene retail chain Mercator bought many stores in ex-Yugoslav states, expecting the standard of living to rise as their countries got closer to EU membership.
And they should do more to explain to Ukrainians the potential benefits of their association agreement, including the possibility that it might ultimately lead to EU membership.
Mr Babacan says France's President Nicolas Sarkozy tried to push Turkey into accepting an alternative to EU membership by launching his plan for a "Mediterranean Union" of EU and neighbouring states.
Turning from ancient history to more recent events, Lord Forsyth's point was that the FM had form: that he could not be trusted, as witness the episode of legal advice with regard to EU membership.
While Mr Karamanlis is keen to help Turkey along the road to EU membership, he must contend with elderly Greek-Cypriot leaders who doubt whether they can rub along with their Turkish-Cypriot counterparts in a federal state.
Successive Czech governments, anxious not to be seen as placing any obstacles in the way of the country's path to EU membership, have defended foreign newspaper ownership as a manifestation of the principle of the free movement of capital.
But the idea that I am going to hold the euro zone to ransom at a time of acute financial stress by blackmailing our closest trading partners with some cobbled-together list of vague and probably unachievable ultimatums, risking years of damaging uncertainty, simply to appease a faction in my party who will never be reconciled to EU membership anyway, is completely absurd.
Plans to extend EU membership to central and eastern Europe are a major part of the EU's business for the next few years.
Gaullist France and the Socialist government of Germany have been threatening to deny EU membership to smaller, poorer countries that side with the United States.
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Both sides also agreed not to block each other's efforts to seek EU membership.
Mr Ivanovic, who advocates extensive autonomy for Kosovo as part of Serbia with a view to eventual EU membership for all, says Serbs are already leaving.
British officials say their review of EU competences will serve as much to highlight the benefits of EU membership as to identify the powers to be repatriated.
Mr Ahtisaari's commission calls for carping European politicians to shut up, more or less, and stick to EU promises to judge Turkey's membership application purely in terms of compliance with EU rules and values.
Enough, in any case, to give Cameron ammunition to support continued EU membership.
He used his speech on Tuesday to outline his government's "ambitions" for Scotland to continue in EU membership as an independent country.
Might France and Turkey's other enemies use this as an excuse to freeze the EU membership talks altogether (eight chapters have already been suspended)?
Croatians just have to look next door to Slovenia, which is also facing economic difficulties, to see that EU membership is no panacea, our correspondent adds.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said the UK risks "tying itself in knots" and neglecting more important issues by trying to renegotiate its EU membership.
The Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, says the decision to allow Cyprus to apply for EU membership without a political settlement will make the division of the island permanent.
Reforms undertaken partly to meet demands for EU membership have shifted power from threat-obsessed generals to civilian institutions, and to a new, more self-consciously Muslim elite rooted in Anatolia rather than Istanbul, Turkey's Western-looking commercial and intellectual capital.
They argue that during that period, while Scotland remained part of the UK and the UK remained part of the EU, they would be able to negotiate their terms of EU membership "from within".
Britain's desire to renegotiate the terms of its EU membership is based on the need to gain the consent of the people as they follow a path within Europe, he said.
Turkey's relations with EU member-state Cyprus are one obstacle, along with opposition to Turkish membership within other EU states, correspondents say.
Serbs hope that on October 25th EU foreign ministers will advance their application for EU membership to the next stage.
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This has raised some concerns within Europe that the AKP government is struggling to give renewed momentum to Turkey's EU membership negotiations.
Even before the latest row, the camp of naysayers, who are opposed in principle rather than on specific grounds to Turkey's EU membership, was gathering strength.
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