Brussels, 14/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday evening, the Liberals held their pre-summit with the participation of Romano Prodi. We want a future that is up to the new challenges, said, during a press conference, the President of the ELDR group in the EP, when notably citing enlargement and hoping that the Laeken Summit may bring ambitious answers, including in terms of economic reform (alluding to the statements by Mr Prodi, he said that the Summit should fill the gap that separates the results recorded from the undertakings made in Lisbon). The new Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said that the future Danish Presidency (second quarter 2002) would have two major priorities: enlargement and the future of the Union. Concerning the first, he said that Denmark hopes to conclude negotiations with all the candidate countries that have fulfilled the criteria and are ready to acceded. Concerning the future of Europe, Mr Rasmussen insisted over the importance of the Convention (he hoped that the national parliaments may have more than two seats), a clearer allocation of competencies, and the integration of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (he spoke of a document of great value). During the meeting, the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt presented the programme of the European Council's works, by notably insisting on the need for the EU to play a major role in the multilateral force deployed in Afghanistan and indicated that 10 to 11 Member States were ready to participate. Raising the delays seen by the EU with regards to asylum, immigration and police cooperation, he hoped that the Heads of State and Government managed to adopt a clear timetable to provide impetus. He reaffirmed that enlargement was an irreversible operation and he signalled
Poland's progress in negotiations. Mr. Verhofstadt also placed emphasis on the need to break the deadlock on the issue of the Community patent. In a press release, the European Liberals again plead in favour of a European Constitution, the establishment of a genuine common foreign policy and a European legal area.