Clear watershed

The European Commission's progress reports on applicants for European Union membership released in Brussels on Wednesday pointed out very clearly that Lithuania and Latvia need to do much more than they have already done, which marks a clear watershed between them and the third Baltic state, Estonia. The EU opened accession talks with Estonia and another five countries in 1998 and moved to include Lithuania, Latvia and another four in early 2000. The EC reports reveal that in many cases Latvia's and Lithuania's ambitions to catch up with the countries, which started the EU membership talks with the first group, have failed so far. Commenting on the EC report, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus expressed a hope that the new government would proceed with the reforms, which he said were the basis for successful course of the country's pre-accession negotiations with the EU. However, Lithuanian and Latvian diplomats do not lose their hopes that their countries might be successful as well meet their deadlines set up by themselves, the commentaries from the ministries of foreign affairs show. EU leaders will decide in December how to proceed with the expansion plan but are thought unlikely to set a date until mid-2001. EC comments on Latvian situation with the Russian-speakers might be considered one of the biggest gains throughout the three countries during the last year.