This was a conference intended to draw the 13 candidate countries, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe, into the wider EU circle.
European Union ministers have been meeting representatives of the 13 countries which have applied for EU membership..
The talks were held at Sochaux in France ahead of next month's EU heads of government summit, to discuss the reforms the EU is undertaking to prepare the way for new members to join.
The meeting also heard a complaint from Turkey that there was pressure to change the rules for its accession to the EU.
This was a conference intended to draw the 13 candidate countries, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe, into the wider EU circle.
Twelve of them are currently engaged in negotiations for membership and all are watching closely the EU's preparations for enlargement, which will mean pushing through a programme of reform at next month's summit in Nice.
Harmony
The Hungarian Foreign Minister, Janos Martonyi, said the meeting had shown how the EU 15 and the 13 applicants could function quite well.
He said it was an important gathering because it had been an opportunity for the EU ministers to hear the views of those who were about to join.
He said the member states were reasonable enough to take their ideas into account.
Mr Martonyi said the candidates' input might be useful as the existing 15 tried to find the compromises they would have to reach at the Nice summit.
Turkey complains
But the talks did not pass of entirely without controversy - Turkey, attending this type of conference for the first time, complained that some within the EU were trying to impose tougher conditions on its planned accession.
Turkey has been particularly annoyed by Greek attempts to have a reference to disputes over Cyprus and territory in the Aegean included among its membership criteria.
The Turkish Foreign Minister, Ismail Cem, said the rules of the game could not suddenly be changed.