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MOST European Union summits are family gatherings. They are a bit bad-tempered sometimes, of interest to family members, certainly, but not usually of much concern to anyone else. This one may be an exception. On Thursday December 14th (and continuing the following day), European leaders met in Brussels for an end-of-year bash to which others are paying unusual attention. This is because the summit should show whether European countries really want their club to expand into Turkey and the Balkans and if so, how quickly. The issue of enlargement is important largely because of a coincidence of timing.

Three days before the summit European foreign ministers decided to punish Turkey for not fulfilling promises to the EU as part of its membership talks. The heads of government will now have to endorse (or possibly change) that decision. Two weeks after the meeting, on New Year’s Day, Bulgaria and Romania officially join the club as its 26th and 27th members, a delayed completion of the “Big Bang” enlargement of 2004, when ten other central and eastern European countries joined.

And three weeks on from that, on January 21st, Serbia is due to hold elections. The EU broke off relations with Serbia in May because of its inability to capture a suspected war criminal. But the summiteers are under pressure to reopen talks with the Serbs because NATO members last month offered Serbia closer ties with the military organisation. It might seem strange for the EU to be boycotting a country that is talking to NATO.

Read the full story
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=8432840&fsrc=RSS


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Turkish Troops Out of Cyprus