Brussels, 13/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The priorities of the Swedish Presidency for the first half of 2001 will be the three "Es": a) enlargement, which is the "very, very first"; b) employment (the Stockholm European Council of 23 and 24 March will ensure the follow-up to the Lisbon Summit of March of this year); c) the environment (the Gothenburg European Council of Friday 15 and Saturday 16 June should adopt a strategy for sustainable development). This is what Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, who will chair the General Affairs Councils, told a small group of journalists in Strasbourg last week.
Answering questions, Mrs. Lindh, who had two-days of talks with parliamentarians, sincerely hoped that, before the beginning of the Swedish Presidency, the IGC would be completed in Nice: it would be a disaster were there to be no agreement, we will leave Nice without having anything, she exclaimed (whereas in Amsterdam, despite the three unsettled "leftovers", we nevertheless had a treaty on the table).
It is too soon to set out dates for the first accessions to the EU, Ms. Lindh went on to say in answer to other questions. The EU must be ready, as promised, for 1 January 2003: the first candidates will join as quickly as possible. Before putting forward dates, however, we must wait for the Commission's progress reports in November, and we may possibly be able to provide more precise indications under the Swedish Presidency, she added.
Furthermore, in answer to questions on Sweden and the euro, Anna Lindh confirmed that she was in favour of her country's signing up to the single currency, but that she would prefer that discussions on this begin after the Swedish Presidency of the Council. During that semester, I would like to make the Swedes "more enthusiastic" towards their participation in the euro, without engaging in a debate marked by "big national disagreements", she said. In addition, she acknowledged that the outcome of the Danish referendum would be "very important" for Sweden, whereas the British attitude to the subject would be "interesting, but not decisive".