Future of the European Union

On May 1, 2004 the enlarged European Union will represent, with the addition of 75 million people in the ten new member states, a total of 453 million, i.e. 7.5% of the global population. As an entity, it covers 3,929,712 km² (3% of the global landmass) and has a GDP of over 9,230 billion euros, one-fourth the world's wealth.
How does the Union of 25 further democracy and peace?
Enlargement helps to spread EU values--democracy, economic solidarity, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and good-neighborly relations along member states. At its founding, the pooling of French and German steel and coal, pushed under the Schuman plan of May 9, 1950, led to lasting reconciliation between the two countries by depriving them of the strategic means of making war on each other.
Democracy as a precondition
The peaceful settlement of disputes and good-neighborly relations have become so embedded in EU member states that this progress tends to be forgotten, yet the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s showed that war could still break out in Europe.
The first of the three criteria for accession adopted at the 1999 Copenhagen European Council, which launched the process of enlargement, requires stability of institutions in the candidate countries so as to guarantee democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities.
To join the Union, the ten future members had to begin by settling their border disputes, lessening the problem of national minorities and building trust among themselves and in their relations with the other existing member states. The division of Cyprus is the sole major problem at this time that has not yet been resolved.…