Скачать или смотреть Enlargement is celebrated at EU headquarters

(30 Apr 2004)

1. Zoom-out from Brussels's landmark Arc de Triomphe to ceremony podium
2. Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt walking towards podium
3. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian Prime Minister:
"I think it's a historic opportunity and a historic moment that we are living today; because for the first time without violence we are uniting Europe. I think also economically it shall be an important event, because 70 (m) million people, consumers are entering in the European Union, and in a new internal market. So, it's a really historic moment."
4. Various of children with silver helium star balloons making there way to podium
5. Wideshot of Brussels's landmark and ceremony podium
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian Prime Minister:
"We are saying to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus, welcome home in the European family."
7. Wideshot of Brussels's landmark and ceremony podium with giant EU flag blowing in the background
8. Medium shot of EU flag
9. Close-up of EU flag
10. Medium shot of bystanders hugging
11. Wideshot of bystanders
12. Medium shot of Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt cutting balloon ribbons
13. Close-up of landmark and balloons going up in the air
14. Bystanders applauding
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Sophie-Aurore de Saint-Marcq, Bystander:
"I am very happy, even though I am a bit worried and it would have been preferable to first pass the European reforms. But now welcome to all the new members."
16. SOUNDBITE (English) David Thanes, American tourist:
"I think it's wonderful. I think it's important that there be more unity in the world."
17. Pan from ceremony podium to balloons in the sky

STORYLINE:

Thousands of people packed streets and city squares across the "new Europe" for festivals and fireworks ushering in a bold new era: the European Union's historic enlargement from 15 nations to 25.

In Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt addressed a ceremony in central Brussels to welcome the new members saying a historic moment had arrived.

"Welcome home in the European family," he told them.

Hundred of balloons were released to commemorate the occasion before a crowd of onlookers.

The expanded EU, which takes in a broad swath of the former Soviet bloc - a region separated for decades from the West by barbed wire and Cold War ideology - was widening to 450 (m) million citizens at midnight (2200 GMT) to create a collective superpower rivaling the United States.

A festive mood swept the newcomer nations, whose accession was hailed by EU leaders as "the end of the artificial divisions of the last century."

The EU's biggest expansion in its 47-year history brings in eight formerly communist countries - the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia - along with Cyprus and Malta.

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