Brussels, 26/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The future Danish Presidency of the EU Council plans to conclude accession negotiations with ten candidate countries at the European Council in Copenhagen (on 12 and 13 December), Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the press on Monday evening in Brussels after a meeting with European Commission President Romano Prodi. Mr Rasmussen, who predicts that the conditions for enlargement financing will be hardly different from the European Commission proposals, warns against establishing a link between enlargement and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
Furthermore, in answer to questions on the single currency, Mr Rasmussen felt that changeover has been a success and said he was confident that the Danish will one day also be in the euro zone. However, he said, one must "respect the opinion of around 53% of the Danes, who had rejected changeover to the euro at the referendum in 2000". He refused to speculate on the date of another referendum and noted that any referendum must be "meticulously" prepared.