During a recent trip to Poland, the European enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen described corruption as a cancer that spreads unless it is tackled energetically. Candidate countries will be told to improve the training and pay of their civil servants, and to strengthen their judiciaries, after half a century of communist rule. But on the key issues of accession dates, a strategy paper will simply recommend that the EU should conclude negotiations with the most advanced countries during the course of 2002. It does not specify which these countries are. Taking into account the lengthy ratification procedures, EU officials believe that no new members can realistically expect to join before 2004 or 2005.
Family wait for journalist's release Links to more Europe stories are at the foot of the page.