Michael Leigh, the European Commission's chief negotiator with Bulgaria arrives in Sofia on March 18. He will be among over seventy-five officials from EU members and candidates states who will participate in the 670th Wilton Park Conference "Enlarging the European Union", starting March 19 in Sofia. Besides other topics, the participants will discuss EU enlargement and ways of building public support in the candidate states. Foreign Minister Passy will open the forum. Bulgaria’s major foreign policy objective is to join the European Union as early as possible. At the meeting in Laeken the EU leaders drafted a declaration saying all 12 nations currently negotiating to join the bloc meet the criteria for membership, apart from Romania and Bulgaria at the meeting of the EU state and governmental heads in Laeken, Belgium. Following that Parliament approved a strategy for accelerated EU negotiations.