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The reason we're here is to talk about the European Union, and whether Romanians and Bulgarians would like to join, and whether the rest of the EU wants them. Next week we should learn whether they have been given the thumbs for full membership from the start of next year.

I'll be speaking to you from a beautiful café on , and we've teams in Sofia and Bucharest as well. But that's not to say you're not invited to join the conversation wherever you are. If you're outside of the EU, do you view it's expansion with approval, trepidation or indifference? And if you're inside it, after ten countries joined in 2004, will two more make any difference to you?

It's worth mentioning that this show is about talking with others around the world and that means asking questions as well as expressing opinions. If you don't know much about life in Romania and Bulgaria, there will be plenty of people tonight to answer your questions.

This is also an attempt to raise the bar for the programme by doing an outside broadcast ("OB" in the radio lingo) from three different locations. Our irrepressible-born producer Dicky Bowen has been working on this for what seems like three years, so we have high hopes.

I'll speak to you later.