Hluboka Castle, Czech Republic - Neither Croatia, nor any other applicant country, will be able to join the European Union unless the bloc's reforming Lisbon Treaty is ratified, officials from France and Germany said Saturday.

"There will be no enlargement if there is no Lisbon Treaty," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Czech Republic.

Hluboka Castle, Czech Republic  - Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller was taken to a hospital Saturday after he fell weak during a European Union meeting in the Czech Republic.

"He was not feeling well in the morning," Zuzana Opletalova, a spokeswoman for Czech Foreign Ministry, told German Press Agency dpa.

Check-ups at the Ceske Budejovice County Hospital showed that the minister had "nothing serious," Opletalova said.

Reykjavik - Iceland's former ruling party Friday signalled it would accept holding a national referendum on membership in the European Union but remains opposed to joining the bloc.

A broad majority of the Independence Party delegates backed that stance at a party conference. They further said there should be a second referendum on a possible membership agreement with the EU.

Citing the need to protect Icelandic interests, including its fishing waters, the party said it believes that "EU membership will not be in the interest of Iceland."

Brussels  - Turkey must make sure it protects the freedom of the press, the head of the European Union's executive told Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Thursday.

"Full respect of press freedom is an important value for us. It is important that there be full respect of this basic, fundamental right," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said as he welcomed Gul on the first-ever visit to the EU's headquarters by a Turkish head of state.

Moscow  - Russia views the European Union's pledge to invest in the modernization of Ukraine gas pipeline system as "an unfriendly act" against Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

"What happened in Brussels at the forum, we see as an unfriendly act in relation to Russia by both the European Union and Ukraine," foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told journalists.

Brussels - Officials in Brussels on Wednesday called on European Union countries to step up their fight against human traffickers and paedophiles through better prevention, harsher penalties for offenders and improved assistance to their victims.

In a statement, the European Commission said it would be proposing a series of new and updated rules to all 27 member states in the coming weeks.