Brussels, 05/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has said that it is satisfied with progress in the accession negotiations. In a mid-term review of the roadmap for the accession negotiations that was adopted by the Nice Summit in December 2000, the Commission commented this week that the implementation of the timetable has turned out to be a success and has given a new stimulus to the negotiations by allowing substantial progress to be made on several difficult issues like the environment, free circulation of persons and the free circulation of capital. It sends candidate countries the unambiguous signal that their efforts are being returned. The European Commission noted that common positions had been drawn up for the nine of the chapter scheduled for the first half of 2001, which has made it possible to provisionally close most of them. Negotiations are continuing with certain candidate countries over specific chapters, such as the free circulation of persons, the free circulation of capital and the environment. Work has progressed relatively far on some of the nine other chapters scheduled in the roadmap for the second half of 2001, although common positions for the remaining chapters still need to be drawn up. This assessment will serve as the basis of the discussions over progress in accession negotiations to be held by heads of state at the Ghent European Council on 19 October 2001.