Brussels, 29/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Commissioner responsible for Enlargement, Gunter Verheugen, felt that the European Union should not set, this year, the "target dates" for either that accession of European Union candidate countries, or for the concluding of negotiations. Invited last week to inform the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Committee of the state of advancement in the accession negotiations, Gunter Verheugen did announce that the Commission and future French EU Presidency have agreed not to give a "target date" during the Nice Summit in December.
For the Commissioner responsible for Enlargement it is justified by the fact that several basic conditions are not gathered to propose such dates. Gunter Verheugen notably cited the uncertainties around the IGC on institutional reform that will end in December at the earliest, thus too late for the commission to have the time to prepare proposals for a calendar for the ending of negotiations. Furthermore, the Member States have no intention of setting deadlines for the closing of the negotiations, considering that true and substantial negotiations on the delicate subjects (agriculture, free movement of people, justice and home affairs, regional policy) have not even started (and, no doubt, will not before the beginning of next year).
Commissioner Verheugen also discussed with the Economic and Monetary Committee the issue of the Euro. He indicated that it was not "possible" or "desirable" that the candidate countries introduce in a unilateral manner the Euro before their accession to the EU. They will all one day be members of the Euro zone, he added, but they must respect the procedure, by stages, accession to the EU being the first. In his opinion, it should have a lapse of at least two years between accession to the EU and entry into the Euro-zone, so as to verify the respect for convergence criteria, as it will be necessary to avoid weakening the Euro.