Madrid, 31/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - The "enlargement" package presented on Wednesday by the Commission is a "very reasonable base for discussion, allowing all the sensitive aspects of all countries to be tackled", said Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar, when speaking to a group of European journalists on Thursday. On this basis, the Spanish Presidency plans to closely follow the roadmap fixed for membership negotiations. "We have an undertaking to take decisions at the end of the year. It is important for us to have a common position for negotiating with the candidate countries", confirmed José Maria Aznar. Three elements "must be respected so that we can take a decision at the end of the year", he recalled. These elements are: the principle of differentiation, respect for acquis communautaire and respect of the Berlin Agenda. In this light, the President of the European Council said, regarding the introduction of direct aid to agriculture in the candidate countries, that "Agenda 2000 does not say that direct aid may be continued after 2006/2007, but it does not say the contrary either".
José Maria Aznar wished to show he was "reasonable" regarding the potential results of the Barcelona Summit regarding the liberalisation of the electricity market, a priority of the Spanish Presidency that causes some reticence on the French side. Ideally, "what I would like would be total opening of the electricity market, as the market cannot work if there are markets and competition at several levels in Europe", he commented. Furthermore, he repeated that structural reforms are necessary to ensure the EU can compete with the United States. He gave his assurance that it was not a matter of copying the American model, saying "we must, however, make the European social model work and finance it". He said the best policy was that which creates jobs. However, he went on to say "we know there are difficulties and we cannot forget that the task of the Presidency is to find common points that allow us to move forward (…) We are not ignoring the electoral calendars of our partners" (Ed.: a reference made to France in particular).
The Spanish Prime Minister considers the Commission has "met its obligations" by placing emphasis, on Wednesday, on the deficit of Germany and Portugal. The Stability and Growth Pact provides for an early warning system that the Commission must use, he remarked. Stressing that budgetary problems are also linked to the international economic situation, he recalled that it would be up to the Ecofin Council to "find a mechanism for giving a credible message in the context of the Stability Pact".
Answering questions on the results expected of the Convention on the Future of Europe, José Maria Aznar said he hoped that the Convention would define "what we are willing to share and what we are not willing to share". "I am in favour of including the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the Treaty, enlargement and the area of freedom and security, defence policy and the single market. But I am against discussions on the name to be given to what we are willing to do", he stated. He confirmed his dislike of ideological quarrels and said that, what is important, is concrete policy, not discussions about "what we should call what we are doing".