WALKING THE ENLARGEMENT TIGHT-ROPE.

• Position: European Commission rules for membership - Countries should satify the conditions to join European Union

However sensitively the European Commission phrases the enlargement package it is presenting this week, the EU is now embarked on a perilous trip along a tightrope - and maintaining its balance will preoccupy it for at least the next decade.

Applicant countries have to be given the right mixture of tough conditions and incentives to reform. At the same time, sceptical governments and publics in the current member states have to be persuaded that enlargement is good for them too, while reassuring them that the EU is not lowering its standards or biting off more than it can chew.

The new partnership agreements spell out the scale of the challenges, as this issue of Europe Information makes clear. Each of the six prospective new members is required to make urgent changes towards patterns of behaviour that are taken for granted in the member states, but are still a novelty - in some cases still a dream - for these aspirants.

For Turkey, the tasks range from reducing the influence of the military to eliminating state torture, and from putting a stop to so-called honour killings to settling tense border disputes.

Even Croatia, the closest state to EU membership, is still in the unfinished process of assuring refugee return, resolving border issues arising from the bloody fragmentation of Yugoslavia, and dealing with a legacy of war criminals.

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