Brussels, 26/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook announced in Budapest on Tuesday that the British Government backed the demands of the most advanced applicant countries of the Luxembourg Group for the setting of a timetable for concluding accession negotiations.
"Target dates have played an important role in galvanising previous accession negotiations. They are a useful spur on both existing members and on applicants to make progress", Mr. Cook said in Budapest in a speech before diplomats.
The six first applicant countries (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia and Cyprus) have on several occasions demanded that the EU's Heads of State of Government adopt, at latest at the December Summit in Nice, "target dates" for finalising negotiations with them. The French Presidency (backed by a large majority of Member States) has already announced that it was against the "premature" setting of dates at the end of this year, whereas the Commission would like to wait for the conclusion of its own progress reports (in November) on the state of preparedness of the candidates, before deciding on whether it would be appropriate to offer candidates dates for concluding negotiations.