Euro Parliament votes for EU enlargement

The European Parliament yesterday overwhelmingly voted in favour of the accession of 10 countries, including Malta, into the European Union.

A total of 521 MEPs present for the plenary session in Strasbourg gave the thumbs up to the report of recommendation drawn up by Ursula Stenzel, the parliament's rapporteur to Malta.

Twenty-three MEPs voted against the report, and 23 others abstained.

The countries which got the least number of votes were the Czech Republic (489 in favour), Cyprus (507), and Poland (509). Slovenia, Latvia and Hungary got one more vote than Malta.

Shortly after voting was over, a visibly happy European Parliament president Pat Cox said the parliament had given a simple and clear political message - "the time for enlargement has come, and the time is now".

Mr Cox said the feelings and emotions during yesterday's session represented a very decisive choice.

"We have created a Europe reconciled around common European values," he said, to the loud applause of MEPs.Under the EU treaty, the accession of any new country requires the nod of the European Parliament, by at least 314 of the 626 MEPs.

On Monday, the European Council must now approve unanimously a single Accession Treaty which will then be signed on April 16 in Athens by both the current members, as well as the 10 acceding countries.

Malta's presence in Athens still hangs in the balance though, pending the outcome of Saturday's general election.

Ms Stenzel's report, which approved the accession of Malta into the EU, mentions among other things, that Malta has made far-reaching political and economic decisions in order to meet the Copenhagen criteria.

It also hails the achievements made by the Maltese government in its negotiations with the EU.