The Guardian More than a third of European Union citizens oppose the forthcoming enlargement of the union. The figures paint a picture of apathy and hostility to the EU's single most important current challenge at a time when the 15 member states are haggling over the terms, dates, and money involved. Candidate countries are already complaining of slow-moving negotiations, shifting goalposts and tough conditions, and the findings will increase the resentment in Warsaw, Budapest and elsewhere, and boost the fear of a backlash against Brussels. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta are the leading candidates. Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania are moving more slowly towards meeting the tough political, economic and legal criteria.
Turkey has yet to start talks.
EU enlargement is lauded as a means of eradicating cold war divisions and creating the world's biggest single market, with half a billion consumers. Spain, which always fights doggedly for the funds it receives from the EU, has just signalled an attempt to keep them at their current level, despite the candidate countries' expectation that they too will be financially supported. Fear of being swamped by cheap labour from the east is cited as the reason why Austrians and Germans oppose the admission of neighbouring Poland and the Czech Republic in 2004 or 2005. Analysts point out, however, that migratory flows are likely to be limited, as they were when Spain and Portugal joined in 1986. Sweden, the current president, is pushing hard for progress to be made by the time the Gothenburg summit is held in June.