Brussels, 22/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Director General of the European Commission and Chief negotiator for membership talks, Eneko Landaburu, has appealed to the candidate countries and to Member States to honour their respective commitments within the framework of the enlargement process in order to achieve the Presidency's "ambitious" work programme. The challenge "is enormous" for everyone, foremost for the candidate countries themselves, and "they must begin to move", said Mr. Landaburu in an interview granted to Uniting Europe (No. 128 of 22 January), Agence EUROPE's specialised weekly on enlargement. "They cannot simply do with sending Brussels general papers (negotiating positions) calling for transition periods. They must also show us that not only are they capable of transposing the acquiis, but also capable of implementing it", Mr. Landaburu stressed. Member States must also make an effort, as they will have to adopt common negotiating positions, at least on the nine chapters set out in the road map contained in the strategy. As for the Commission, it will continue to "play its driving role" in the enlargement process, even though intensification over the coming months (with a number, never attained so far, of chapters to be dealt with or opened) represents a considerable burden of work for its services. In all, during the Swedish Presidency, the Commission will have to submit to the Council some 150 draft common negotiating positions. We have told the Swedish Presidency that the Commission could only do this enormous work if the candidate countries are able to submit papers (negotiating positions) of sufficient quality", the Director General emphasised.
The EU's Chief negotiator, moreover, refused to speculate on the number of chapters that could be closed during the Swedish Presidency. Meanwhile, Poland has declared that it wanted to close no less than 11 chapters under the Swedish Presidency. "What the Poles want is too ambitious and somewhat unrealistic. Closing 11 chapters seems to me very difficult", said Landaburu. If Poland and the other countries of the first group ("Luxembourg Group": Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Cyprus) have set themselves as goal ending negotiations in 2001, "that's their choice, it's they themselves which are setting constraints", he said, adding: "but may they not blame others if their own individual goals are not achieved".
Mr. Landaburu also backed the decision of the Swedish Presidency not to open all the remaining chapters with all the six candidate countries of the "Helsinki group" (those which began negotiations in 2000 only), but only with two of them: Latvia and Lithuania. "There is no point in opening negotiations on certain chapters earlier. At the time of opening, we want to be able to see, within a reasonable timeframe, the end of negotiations (…) This is why we are not prepared to open chapters that have no chance of being closed within a reasonable timeframe. We would not be credible were we to propose goals that cannot be attained", Landaburu repeated.
The EU's Chief negotiator also repeated his opposition to the premature and hasty setting of target dates for ending accession negotiations, as the most advanced countries have wanted for some time now. "I am very sceptical as to the usefulness of a date for the enlargement process, as setting a date - while it could be positive as stimulant - could also be very negative". If not respected, it would create enormous frustrations", Landaburu warned, also rejecting the argument by which the date could further galvanize efforts in the candidate countries to speed-up reforms. "The minds and people have been galvanized. There is no need to stimulate them more, for the time being", he said. "Target dates" could, however, be defined when negotiations are at a more advanced stage. Maybe differentiation in negotiations could allow us to set dates at the end of the Swedish Presidency or at the end of the Belgian Presidency, Mr. Landaburu commented.
Generally speaking, Landaburu stressed that the Commission would place no obstacle in the way of an acceleration in negotiations. "On the contrary: on the Commission's side, there is a great desire to accelerate the process. The Commission has already demonstrated by the strategy it proposed last November and that was unanimously approved by the Fifteen, that is was capable of being a driving force in the enlargement process, a driving force that enabled us to emerge from deadlock (…) and that enables us to look at the future with optimism", Landaburu concluded.