Beirut, 20/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - During a visit of the European Troika to Beirut on Monday, the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and the Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafic Hariri, announced that the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement between the EU and the Lebanon would probably be signed within the next two weeks (according to Community sources the date is likely to be 30 November). Visibly anxious to add some political impetus to the conclusion of the negotiations that were opened in 1995, Mr Hariri indicated to the Troika that the Lebanon would be prepared to accept compromise proposals on points that European negotiators introduced on Monday but which had been left in abeyance.
These controversial issues include the readmission clause on illegal immigrants and the classification of agricultural products. According to a source from the European Community, the agricultural issue results from a misunderstanding between Lebanese and European negotiators, the former, classifying processed agricultural products like jam and fruit juice as "industrial products" and the latter, classifying them as "agricultural products". A proposal put forward by the EU on Monday night should allow for an acceptable compromise on the part of Lebanese negotiators. The Association Agreement envisages the dismantling of tariffs over a five year period for imports of some Lebanese products into Europe, a number of quotas on certain products like wine and potatoes and the dismantling of tariffs over a five year period on European imports of agricultural products, as well as an end to tariffs over a twelve year period on industrial products into Lebanon, beginning in the sixth year of the entry into force of the agreement.
European sources indicated that Mr Hariri had impressed upon the Troika the importance of the Association Agreement to matters of internal and external policy for the Lebanon. European sources emphasised that the Lebanese government needed European aid for pushing forward its reform programme in an economic context that was extremely difficult. These same sources claimed that the gesture by the Lebanese Prime Minister showed that the Syrians had made certain concessions in allowing the Lebanon to conclude this agreement, whose own negotiators had for a long time linked negotiations with those of an Association Agreement between Syria and the EU.