Latvia, a country now tantalized by the prospect of accession negotiations next year, is already working behind the scenes to ensure that its favorable position is maintained at the Vienna summit. But given the state of the expansion process, the diplomat said it's more realistic to assume that next year is the best that can be hoped for. He said Latvia is content with that prospect, and wants to keep it intact. When the newcomers eventually join they are expected to be big recipients of EU financial support. So the more applicants allowed into the front-running group, the sooner and bigger will be their economic impact on the present members.
Internal reforms are essential.
Some EU members, like Germany and the Netherlands, are concerned they are paying far too much into the present EU budget. Other less developed members like Spain and Portugal are worried that new members will siphon off their big EU regional and structural funding. And costly EU schemes like the Common Agricultural Policy must be changed as they are too expensive to be extended to new members.