Dear Log,
«It is too late to do much about the readiness of next year's intake [of new countries into the EU]: all have signed their accession treaties, and all bar Cyprus have held referendums ratifying membership. It is one of the more worrying aspects of the European scene that most of the candidates voted overwhelmingly to join, while the current 15 worry rightly about losing plebiscites on the constitution, the euro - or, in Britain's case, both.Verheugen saw last week's monitoring reports as a final chance to lick the 10 into shape because, once in, they will break the rules just like the existing members, today facing over 1,000 legal challenges for infringing EU law - to say nothing of French and German attempts to escape punishment for flouting eurozone budget deficit limits.»
