Brussels, 28/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - An overview of the outcome of the accession negotiations in Wednesday (at deputy level) between the EU and all the candidate countries (with the exception of Slovakia which had no dossiers ready to be negotiated)):
Lithuania closed three more chapters - free circulation of individuals, competition and customs union. Lithuania has now concluded negotiations over 21 of the 31 chapters.
Romania has closed the company law chapter. It has now closed 9 chapters in total.
Latvia has closed three more chapters - environment, competition policy and financial control (21 chapters closed in total).
Estonia has closed the competition chapter (20 chapters now closed).
Cyprus has not yet formally closed the justice and home affairs chapters, but it will be closed at the next ministerial meeting in December without debate (the latest information provided by Cyprus arrived too late for the chapter to be formally closed at Wednesday's meeting). This means the total number of closed chapters still stands at 23.
Malta has ended negotiations over the social policy chapter (19 chapters now closed).
Hungary closed the chapter on justice and home affairs (being one of the first of the 12 candidate countries to do so). Hungary joins Cyprus at the top of the leading candidate countries, with 23 closed chapters.
The Czech Republic has closed the tax chapter (Prague pledged to align its cigarette excise duty legislation by the end of 2007 with the much higher levels of duties in the EU). This brings the number of closed chapters to 22.
Bulgaria has closed the chapter on free circulation of services and has opened three new chapters - energy, regional policy and budget policy. 13 chapters are now closed.
Poland has closed the company law chapter. 19 chapters now closed.
Slovenia has closed the competition chapter (22 chapters now closed).