Brussels, 10/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner, Pascal Lamy, and the Ministers of the 13 EU accession candidate countries will meet in Ljubljana, this Friday, in order to continue their discussions over issues linked to the WTO and the dialogue over the commercial aspects of enlargement. A joint declaration in favour of the launching of a new round of multilateral negotiations in Qatar should result from this meeting, which finishes on Saturday.
The ministerial meeting, hosted by Slovenia, is the opportunity for Mr Lamy to continue his efforts for convince and gain support for the planned new round, which presently constitutes the cornerstone of the Union trade policy. The positions of his 13 counterparts (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Turkey) in Geneva are generally close to those of the EU and the latter are favourable, among others, towards the adopting of a wide ranging and balanced agenda for this round, in order to reflect all the interests of all the world trade system.
The meeting is also dedicated to the trade aspects of the next Union enlargement and other bilateral or regional issues of common interest, the aim being to ensure that the alignment with the Community acquis be completed in the given time. It should broach, among others, the specific implications of the preparations for enlargement in terms of trade policy, the areas where the candidate countries will be called upon to redouble efforts to integrated the EU acquis, the regional liberalisation initiatives (Western Balkans), the probable development of economic relations between the enlarged Union and Russia, as well as other countries from the Community of Independent States (CIS), of the former USSR, etc.