Slovakia to vote on EU membership in May or June

With obstacles to enlargement seemingly being dispatched one-by-one at the Brussels summit the ten candidate countries - who look evermore set to join the Union in 2004 - are beginning to look at the politics of ratifying the accession treaties.

While not all candidate countries have to have the treaty endorsed by referenda it is thought that the vast majority will. It appears Cyprus will be the only state not to put the issue to a popular vote.

In an interview with the EUobserv...