Brussels, 30/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the "General Affairs" Council began preparing decisions concerning enlargement that the Fifteen will have to take at the European Council of Brussels on 24 and 25 October, by examining the financial and institutional implications of the accession of 10 new members in 2004. As expected, the debate has not yet reached conclusions, but the Danish Presidency was generally satisfied with the "broad agreement" expressed by Member States on its proposals concerning two issues. The preparatory work will continue immediately within Coreper in view of reaching the ministers' table at the Council of 31 October, the Presidency announced.
Regarding the financial aspect of enlargement, there was no question on Monday of defining the overall budgetary envelope available for enlargement (this decision is to expected before the Brussels Summit), but only of preparing the ground for an agreement over the methodology to apply to assess today in what financial situation the future new members will be in 2004-2005, and to deuce from that possible budgetary (or other) compensatory measures required to avoid new members finding themselves in 2004 in a less favourable financial situation than the year preceding enlargement. Monday's debate essentially revolved around an idea put forward by several Member States (notably the net contributors), and backed by the Danish Presidency, aimed at bringing forward payments under the Cohesion Fund and the Structural Funds to the new members. EU legislation on the Cohesion Fund stipulates that no payment may be made in the first year, which means, in other words, that the newcomers benefit from no payments in 2004. In its proposal, the Commission stuck strictly to that rule and provided for no payments. Yet, the net contributors among the Fifteen now suggest that new members may receive, from 2004 already, payments equivalent to 4% of the commitments earmarked for that year under the Cohesion Fund (which would obviously reduce the volume of possible budgetary compensations to pay at the end of 2004, whence the interest for net contributors). The four cohesion countries (Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland), backed by the European Commission are against this: they deem it "unrealistic" (basing themselves, notably, on their own experience) that new members should, in 2004 already, be able to absorb - and use with the necessary effectiveness - subsidies for projects for which the very preparation has not yet begun and for the implementation of which administrative capacities are still greatly lacking. The Commission also warns against the fact that bringing payments forward in that way would demand a change to the acquis communautaire. Despite everything, the Commission agreed to examine the practical and legal possibilities of bringing forward the technical preparations of the projects eligible for the Cohesion Fund in 2003, so as possibly to bring forward the first payments. The timetable for the actual participation by the new members in the Structural Funds was also looked at. The Commission proposed that the newcomers be able to benefit in 2004 from payments in the order of 16% of the projects concerned, which the Fifteen seem to have backed, even though certain States put forward the idea of increasing this percentage in certain cases to 20%.
As for institutional issues, it is essentially a question of finding arrangements allowing to adapt the institutional decisions included in the Nice Treaty to the fact that in 2004 the new countries entering the Union will not be 12 but 10. Transitional solutions will also have to be found to take account of the fact that certain institutional parts of the Nice Treaty will only take effect in 2005 and that enlargement (if the date of 1 January 2004 is respected) will have taken place six months before the election of the European Parliament. The main problems in suspense concern the setting of the new threshold for a qualified majority, the weighting of votes in Council and the distribution of the 50 seats in the European Parliament initially allocated to Bulgaria and Romania and which (while waiting for the two countries to join) may be distributed between all the other Member states. No decision has yet been taken.