Ten countries were given the green light to join the European Union by 2004 on Wednesday.

In a report on 13 candidate countries, the European Commission recommended ten countries for accession, including Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, but failed to mention Turkey.

Two countries, Bulgaria and Romania will join in 2007, the report said.

Turkey still expects a date this year

In the report the Commission maintains that “Turkey does not fully meet the political criteria.”

Despite the abolishment of capital punishment this year, its human rights record remains poor: Torture and ill-treatment in detention are still regular occurrences in Turkey, and the EU has repeatedly expressed concern on the failure to ensure freedom of expression and religion and the right to free association and assembly.

On Wednesday, Turkey’s foreign minister Sukru Sina Gurel dismissed the EU’s recommendations as being merely technical. He said the EU could still name an accession date for Turkey by the end of the year if the political will was there.

“[If the EU] fails this test that will reflect adversely on other aspects of Turkish-EU relations”, Reuters quoted Gurel.

Turkish deputy prime minister Mesut Yilmaz told the press that Turkey still expects to be given a concrete date before January 2003.

Still a long way to go for the ten

In its assessment of the ten accession candidates’ progress the Commission pin-pointed numerous deficiencies, above all in the administration and legal systems in most of the future member states. More than half of the ten – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia – were warned that they needed to clamp down harder on corruption.

The Commission also informed the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia that their efforts to integrate ethnic groups including Roma citizens had not gone far enough.

On Cyprus, the EU said it was optimistic about the state joining the Union, despite the fact that it is still only able to negotiate with the internationally-accepted ethnic Greek administration in the south.

The question of membership for Cyprus has been reason for dispute between Turkey and the EU. Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has already warned the island will remain divided if the island acedes the EU. Turkey has even gone as far as to threaten to annex the Turkish north if Cyprus joins the EU before a settlement between the Turkish and the Cypriotic side has been found.

In addition, Greece has said it would veto the entire enlargement process if the EU failed to include Cyprus.

40 million euros in the first three years

Howeverm one of the most difficult problems still facing the EU is how to finance enlargement. The Commission estimated that integration of new members will cost 40 billion euros within the first three years. The issue will be addressed at the next EU summit in Brussels on October 24 and 25.

There are still concerns among current EU countries that the new members will pay more into Brussel's purse than they will get out of it. In an interview with German radio, Günter Verheugen, the EU’s Commissioner for Enlargement, pointed out that growth rates are higher in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe than the EU average. “It’s not a prerequisite for membership to be rich. ...We are not a club of the rich,” he insisted.

At issue, among other things, are both structural aid to poor regions and agricultural subsidies. On Tuesday, Poland, the biggest of the ten candidates, made first attempts at altering its demands for farming subsidies, recognizing the unlikelihood that Polish farmers would receive the same generous subsidies as those currently in the EU do.

Precarious ground

But there are still dangers that the enlargement project could collapse. A further obstacle is the Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty on October 19, the blueprint for internal reforms which will help the EU to adapt to additional members.

The treaty regulates enlargement and must be ratified by all states involved - Ireland is the only member which has not yet accepted the treaty. As Günter Verheugen said in a statement earlier this year, “there are still great barriers to be overcome.”