What if Europe threw a party and everybody came? That must be the question the European Union officials are asking themselves these days. Only months after the EU's historic eastward enlargement that swelled the bloc by 10 countries, the potential list of future members is becoming longer instead of shorter.
On May 1, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Cyprus joined the EU, creating a political entity of 25 nations and nearly half a billion people. But instead of highlighting the achievement of at last ending the region's cold war division, it has ignited a rancorous debate over just where Europe's final borders lie.
'The enlargement really has transformed the union,' Marius Vahl from the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels told the South China Morning Post. 'I agree it's truly historic. But it presents real challenges for the EU as well.'
Some Europeans, already worried about the EU's ability to integrate a swathe of formerly communist nations, are concerned the last enlargement has accelerated the drive to offer membership to countries such as Turkey and Ukraine.
At an EU summit last week, European leaders finally agreed to start years of difficult accession talks with Turkey, which has aspired to join for decades. And with the presidential victory of Ukraine's pro-western opposition looking ever more likely, Brussels may have to consider the former Soviet republic's application sooner than leaders in many European capitals would wish.
'The fact that Ukraine's 'orange revolution' came only six months after the EU enlargement has really accelerated matters,' said Stuart Hensel, a senior analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in London. 'Brussels may soon be faced with a Ukrainian president whose priority is joining the EU.'
Mr Hensel said the recent political turmoil in Ukraine had shown just how far the EU's centre of gravity had moved eastward after enlargement. New members Poland and Lithuania, which both border Ukraine, were crucial to the EU's mediation efforts after the disputed presidential election threatened to split Ukraine in two.
