Brussels, 12/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, Slovenia took the lead of the group of the twelve candidate countries in accession negotiations, with a total number of 25 chapters on which talks are "provisionally closed". Other than the transport chapter, for which the EU Fifteen have not yet been able to submit a common negotiating position to the candidate countries (especially due to Austria, which links the agreement to guarantees on the prolongation of its ecopoints system regarding transit to beyond 2003), Slovenia has now completed negotiations on all subjects except those that are very substantially linked to the EU budget, i.e., agriculture, regional policy and budgetary policy. As for transport, the Belgian Presidency did not rule out, Wednesday, the possibility of convening extraordinary meetings in the coming days with certain candidates should the Austria problem over transit be resolved on the fringe of the Laeken Summit. Indeed, if the Fifteen want to respect the road map, they will have to agree on a common negotiating position on transport by 31 December.
Here is an overview of the results of the negotiating meetings that were held on Tuesday and Wednesday, at foreign minister level, with all twelve candidate countries
Bulgaria: no additional chapter was closed on Tuesday (the total number of closures remains unchanged at 13), but Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy created a surprise by announcing to journalists that his country had changed its "target date" for accession and that Bulgarian now intended closing negotiations in 2003 to be able to take part in the European elections in 2004. So far, Bulgaria has always said that it had no intention of joining the EU before 2006, given its delay in preparations and problems in suspense.
Slovakia closed negotiations on the environment, and make considerable progress regarding financial control (closure should come quickly). In all, Slovakia has now closed 21 chapters.
Latvia closed the energy chapter. With a total of 22 chapters closed, Latvia is now the most advanced of the Baltic countries. "We welcome that, but we have always said that it was not the number of chapters that was important, but the quality of the results secured", said Indulis Berzins, Latvian Foreign Minister. Estonia (20 chapters closed so far) Lithuania (21 chapters), the other two Baltic States, closed no chapters on Wednesday.
Slovenia closed three chapters: free movement of persons, tax policy, justice and home affairs. Dimitrij Ruppel, Slovenian Foreign Minister, said he was optimistic that 10 countries would be able to join simultaneously in 2004, even though that scenario (also considered as the most likely by the Commission) is not explicitly mentioned in the conclusions adopted by the General Affairs Council on Monday.
The Czech Republic was able to close the chapters on energy (thanks to the agreement reached last month with Austria over the problem of the nuclear power plant of Temelin) as well as justice and home affairs. In all, Prague has now closed 24 chapters. Jan Kavan, Foreign Minister, reaffirmed that his country was going to "scrupulously' respect all the commitments made in the framework of the "Melk Process" on Temelin.
Hungary closed no additional chapters (the total number of chapters now closed is 23). Janos Martonyi, Foreign Minister, especially regretted that the transport chapter (a chapter that Hungary could close "immediately") should not have been on the agenda due to the Austrian problem. "We hope that this problem will be resolved at the Laeken Summit" he said.
Cyprus closed one additional chapter (justice, home affairs) taking the total number of closures to 24. Speaking to the press, Ioannis Kasoulides, Cypriot Foreign Minister, considered that the talks recently launched between the two Cypriot communities could be completed swiftly, if the Turkish Cypriot side should the political will (to the problem of the island's division). That can be achieved in a few months", said Kasoulides, who also repeated that the Turkish Cypriots were still invited to take part in EU accession negotiations.
No additional chapter was closed with Poland (total: 19 chapters), Romania (9 chapters closed so far) or Malta (19).