Brussels, 05/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission says it is satisfied with progress made so far in enlargement negotiations, as well as the respect by the candidate countries of commitments made regarding aligning their legislation on the acquis communautaire and the setting up of the necessary administrative structures to implement it correctly. "Negotiations are progressing satisfactorily and, so far, the countries participating, on the whole, respect commitments made in the framework of these negotiations, in accordance with the agreed timetable", states a communication approved by the Commission on Wednesday. At this stage, the Commission is not in a position to definitively judge the administrative and judicial capabilities of the different candidates for implementing the acquis on their accession (the final assessment will only be made in the regular reports that the Commission will present on 16 October), but, "to date, we have good reasons to believe that the ten countries that may conclude negotiations by the end of the year (all, except Bulgaria and Romania: Ed.) will, at the time of their presumed accession in 2004, have attained an adequate level of administrative and judicial capabilities" to assure the practical implementation of the acquis, the Commissioner for enlargement, Gunter Verheugen, told the press. The Commission obviously does not expect that all will be 100% perfect, "as the situation in the current Member states is still not either", he acknowledged. Nevertheless, candidates still have to make additional efforts, notably in delicate sectors like food safety, border controls, the functioning of the justice system, and the use of Community funds. So as to support this process, the Commission has drawn up individual action plans that are now being implemented by all candidates and which designate, for each country, stages to cross to ensure a sufficient level of administrative and judicial capability. "It is important that candidate countries use to the full the possibilities offered by these action plans and redouble their efforts on the basis of the directions proposed", stressed Verheugen before the press. Mr. Verheugen also said he was satisfied with the work undertaken under the Spanish Presidency. By the end of June, it should be possible to have resolved almost all the "technical problems" in suspense in negotiations (only some, regarding competition policy, notably, should remain for the Danish Presidency), so that, in the second half of 2002, negotiations will be able to focus on major issues: agriculture (direct payments), budgetary contributions, regional aid. The extraordinary Summit of Brussels of 24 and 25 October will be the "moment of truth", Verheugen confirmed. There is no question of slowing down the process or postponing the deadlines set for the first accessions (January 2004), he considered, noting that "we do not have all the time in the world" to complete this enlargement. Mr. Verheugen also pleaded in favour of greater effort at informing the public of the impact of enlargement, notably on the part of Member States, as recent polls demonstrate that European citizens back enlargement, but that they are still very ill informed. In the current context of a rise in populist and extreme-right parties a little all over Europe, the main message has to be that EU enlargement will not be a source of new problems relating to crime, immigration, the environment, etc.., but that it will contribute to resolving these problems, that exist independently of the accession of new members, Mr. Verheugen hammered home. Enlargement must be understood as a "preventive strategy", the Commissioner declared.