European Enlargement Commissioner Mr Guenter Verheugen today warned that the European Union must be capable of compromise in enlargement talks, or risk causing upheaval in candidate states.
Addressing the European Parliament, Mr Verheugen said issues such as taxation and agriculture, soon to be raised in the talks with the EU hopefuls, would raise enormous social issues in the candidate countries.
"We shall have to decide how much flexibility the Union can tolerate, so that on the day after they join, the future new member states do not experience enlargement as a social upheaval," Mr Verheugen told the assembly.
"What is at stake here is the working of the [EU's] internal market, but also the question of social cohesion in the countries of transition," he said.
Belgian State Secretary Ms Annemie Neyts, speaking on behalf of the EU's rotating presidency, said Belgium was determined to keep up the pace of the enlargement talks, which increased during the Swedish presidency in the first half of this year.
She remained confident that progress would be made to reach the end of enlargement negotiations sooner rather than later.
"The end of the road is coming into view ... We can now talk of months rather than years," Ms Neyts told the Euro MPs.
Candidates Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia and Slovenia began negotiations on EU membership in 1998. They were joined by six other countries in 2000 - Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta.
Negotiations with front-runners such as Cyprus and Estonia are expected to be closed by the end of 2002 with accession possible by 2004.