The European Union [EU] executive Commission declared eight east European nations as well as Cyprus and Malta almost ready for European Union membership on Wednesday and recommended they be invited to join in the year 2004 in what would be the most ambitious EU expansion ever, The Associated Press reported.
In a move bound to upset Turkey and the United States, however, it proposed no date to start entry talks with Ankara, an EU candidate since 1999, saying the country failed to meet political and economic membership criteria and must clean up its human rights records. (Albawaba.com)
