EU:The European Commission yesterday released a series of reports on the seven countries lining up to join the European Union, maintaining a careful balance between criticism and praise but making it clear that further expansion of the EU before 2010 is unlikely.
Six western Balkan countries - Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia - as well as Turkey were told by Brussels in their annual monitoring reports that there was still a long way to go before they reached EU standards in areas such as the fight against corruption, judicial reform and freedom of speech.
Croatia received the most positive feedback of the western Balkan states, with EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn noting that "negotiations are at a cruising speed and entering a decisive phase". It is also the only state that can hope to join the EU by the end of the decade.
The remaining countries cannot realistically expect to join the EU before 2012, according to the commission's assessment.
Mr Rehn said the region faced "major challenges and serious risks", including bringing democracy to Serbia, statebuilding in Bosnia-Herzegovina and dealing with the breakaway Serb province of Kosovo.
But while the EU's reports criticised nationalist rhetoric in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the lack of judicial reform in Montenegro, corruption in Albania and Macedonia, and the slow pace of reform in Serbia, the EU appeared determined to maintain the reform impetus by offering encouraging signals to the states.
It told Serbia that it was prepared to initial a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) - seen as the first step to EU membership - following reports that it was being more co-operative with a war crimes court.
Mr Rehn also said he hoped that all countries in region would be fully signed up to the SAA by the end of next year, with Bosnia-Herzegovina also yet to sign up to the bilateral deal.
More generally, the enlargement commissioner said that through the EU's "soft power", all countries would eventually join the bloc.
On Turkey, the EU also presented a message that was a careful mixture of the positive and negative.
The report called on Ankara to boost its reform process and said "significant further efforts" were needed regarding freedom of expression, civilian control of the military and the rights of non-Muslim religious communities. It said it needed to fight corruption and reform the judiciary system.
Brussels also took a stand on Turkey's infamous Article 301, which has been used to punish journalists and intellectuals for "insulting Turkishness". It said it would not open critical talks on justice and human rights until the country's penal code was changed.
Striking a positive note, however, the report said Turkey held presidential and parliamentary elections within the rule of law.
Mr Rehn also said it should be possible to open EU membership talks in two more legislative areas before the end of the year.