Brussels, 11/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The President of the European Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, visited Denmark on Tuesday, where she met the Prime Minster, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, with whom she discussed the future Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU (the second half of 2002) and the fight against terrorism. Mr Rasmussen stressed to journalists (and Ms Fontaine said she shared his views) the importance of the future Johannesburg Summit on Poverty, which he thought would provide an opportunity for attacking one of the sources of terrorism. Ms Fontaine stressed the European Parliament's desire for negotiations over enlargement (a priority for Denmark) to be concluded at the end of 2002 with the countries that have made the most progress so that they will be able to participate in the June 2004 European elections, and raised with Mr Rasmussen the issue of the status of MEPs and the European political groupings. In terms of the future Convention to prepare for the next Institutional reforms, Ms Fontaine welcomed the progress made by the Council but noted that several areas still needed to be settled (such as the fact that the Convention would simply be called upon to present "options"). Ms Fontaine said it would not simply be a question of Institutional issues, but also a matter of making the EU more effective and bringing it closer to its citizens.