How much further should the EU expand?

The general feeling at the Bratislava conference was that the European Union should enlarge further east. But some ask is there any point extending the bloc again if enthusiasm for the current enlargement is already waning within the EU itself? Rob Cameron, put the question to Alexander Vondra, a former Czech ambassador to the US.

"Well I think that Europeans would have to decide what they really want. If just to build a fortress and defend their welfare from, you know, "the barbarians from the East" I would say that this kind of approach would be generally unwise. And I think that the only way is really to seriously contribute to the stabilization of the European periphery, in the South, in the East, because otherwise I think that there is a serious threat that the instability from the East and South could be imported into the core."

Where do you see Europe end? Where does Europe begin and end for you?

"Look there is no simple answer for this but at the end of the day after many debates the European Union has defined certain criteria, both political and economical, which the aspirant countries have to fulfil and once they are doing that and once they are able to complete a negotiation they are ready to join."

So Georgia, Albania or Croatia, if they fulfil the criteria, they should be let in?

"I think that the next step obviously is to integrate the Western Balkan and then to move with Turkey. And once this is successfully completed we of course can start a serious course towards completing the job in the Black Sea region."

Are you not worried that the issue of Turkey in particular could deeply divide, even destroy, the present European Union?

"Oh it's dividing it since the debate started many many years ago. But again I think just to see this in terms of culture is not enough. The simple fact that many European big powers have their large Moslem communities in Paris, in Brussels itself is - I think Mohammed is the most common name for newly born children in the capital of Europe - I think the key task here is to keep where Turkey is. Where Turkey is, since being established, a secular state - so it's a strategic challenge for Europe and I think exclusion of Turkey would not be a wise approach."