No let-up to EU expansion, enlargement chief and central Europeans say

(WARSAW) - The EU must keep a solid focus on expanding its membership, despite some scepticism as the 27-member bloc struggles with its politically-charged economic woes, the official in charge of its enlargement said Thursday.

Croatia is set to become the European Union's 28th member next July and fellow Balkan nations such as Serbia and Montenegro are in talks with Brussels.

But the mood in crisis-weary west Europe is very different from what it was during the big-bang expansion eight years ago which was seen as drawing a line under Cold War-era divisions -- even though the impact has yet to feed into the policy-making arena.

"Enlargement fatigue is like a yeti. Everybody's talking about it, but no-one has seen it," said EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule after talks with 2004 entrants Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, plus Croatia and would-be members from the Balkans.

"The answer can be expressed in one word: credibility. If the candidate countries are credible in their reform process, the European Union should be credible in moving that country forward in the enlargement process," he told reporters.

"It's in our interest to have as strong a consensus as possible on issues of enlargement. Enlargement has never been a part of the problem. It has always been part of the solution.

Fule was in Warsaw for a meeting of the Visegrad Four alliance, which groups the Poles, Hungarians, Czechs and Slovaks and is named after a town in Hungary where it was founded in 1991, two years after their communist regimes crumbled.

The quartet are staunch supporters of bringing new nations into the EU.

"The torch of enlargement must continue to burn," said Hungary's Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi.

"This is not only a Visegrad Four interest, it's not only a central European interest, it's an overall interest of Europe that Europe becomes really whole and free," he added.

"We all know that the integration process, or the European project, is now in a fairly turbulent period. And that's precisely the reason why we have to keep enlargement high on the agenda. We must not permit that the crisis prevents us or even delays us in our efforts in being successful."

Fule said there was no need to choose between deeper integration among existing members and expanding the bloc, which with 500 million people is one of the globe's largest markets.

"What has made the European Union strong is actually pursuing both processes at the same time, with both processes interacting with each other. With deeper integration, we created the conditions for more members. And through bigger membership, we made this organisation a strong one, and a global player," he said.