The European Union will expand to include new members on May 1, 2004, rather than January 1 as originally planned, the foreign ministers of EU countries have agreed. The date must still be approved at a December EU summit in Copenhagen.
The change is intended to give heads of EU states more time to prepare for as many as 10 new Union members, while still allowing the new members to participate in summer elections to the European Parliament.
Compiled by Tom Nicholson from press reports.
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