European heads of state are meeting in Brussels this week to debate just how big the EU should grow and how to ensure decision-making does not grind to a halt when it does. There are rising concerns that the last round of enlargement in 2004 badly overstretched the EU and that taking on more candidate nations - such as Croatia and other Balkan countries - could lead to paralysis.

Earlier this week, Turkey bore the brunt of those concerns when EU ministers decided to drastically slow down accession talks with the large Muslim state. But can Europeans leaders now agree on the best way forward for the EU?

More bureaucrats
Brussels' European quarter is throbbing to the sounds of busy construction work as new buildings spring up. This is the reality of an enlarged European Union: more buildings to house more bureaucrats and an army of translators.

Since 10 new member states joined the EU in May 2004, the number of official languages has swollen to 20. Summit meetings have become so large that ministers can no longer talk face-to-face. Instead, all 25 of them sit around a giant rectangular table, talking to one another through monitors.

Defending national interests
However, the worries about an enlarged Europe run far deeper than questions of organisation. It's feared that a bigger, more diverse EU will be less able to make decisions. A whole set of proposals has recently been held up as more countries seek to defend their own distinct national interests. Jacki Davis, an EU analyst at Brussels' European Policy Centre, explains how difficult things have already become: 

"The EU has continued to function with 25 [members], it will continue to function at 27. But it is getting harder and harder all the time. You only have to look at the difficult negotiations last year on the EU budget, or the arguments over the constitution and what to do about it, to see how complicated it is becoming to get decisions of any sort."

Huge frustration
Recently, the greatest obstruction has come from Poland, which last month vetoed EU talks with Russia and tried to block reform to the union's value-added tax regime. This is causing huge frustration, says European Commission spokesman Friso Roscam-Abbing:"Very recently we had an agreement [by] 24 of the 25 states on a proposal on the transfer of prisoners from one member state to their country of origin. This was blocked by just one member state, Poland. But we can name many other key proposals that were either held up for a tremendous time or are still blocked by one, two or three member states." This lack of progress and the constant threat of vetoes is fuelling fears about allowing in any more countries.

Closed doors

Summit leaders are likely to agree this week that the doors must be closed while the EU puts its own house in order.  They also need to come up with urgent institutional reforms after Dutch and French voters last year rejected the proposed constitution, which was meant to take care of that job.  The end result, says Jacki Davies, is likely to be an even longer wait for aspiring countries like Croatia.  "The problem with 'where do Europe's borders end?', 'how big can it get?', is that politicians don't want to answer it.  Some of them have made promises to different groups of countries.  So they will emphasize the importance of those institutional reforms before we take on new countries."

EU leaders will also have to face up to public anxiety about enlargement, with fears that cheap workers from the East are snapping up jobs in the West.

Business prospects

But not everyone is downbeat, least of all businesses.  Jaap Brokking, the director of BBS Foods in the Netherlands, sees enlargement as an opportunity, and to prove it he's opening a branch in Romania: "I see a big chance that we can grow. When you have more customers, you can sell more.  A lot of people are afraid to lose their jobs to cheap Eastern European workers.  I understand the emotion of the people, but we see that we are moving to more marketing and more complex production here in Holland, so there is enough work for our labourers here.  So far it is for Europe very good that we are enlarging."

But despite the clear economic benefit of enlargement - growth in the EU now outstrips the US - this has not trickled down to many European citizens.  And if they are to honour their commitments to aspiring countries, EU leaders must first turn their attention to convincing their voters that when it comes to the EU, bigger really is better.