Brussels, 18/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Danish Presidency had foreseen concluding membership talks with the ten "first wave" candidates on all the technical chapters before the Brussels Summit (hence the idea of convening additional negotiating meetings on Friday), but these additional meetings did not, at the end of the day, allow this objective to be achieved. The difficult chapter of competition therefore remains open with Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic (the meetings with these last two countries were even cancelled at the last minute as there was no common EU position). Only Malta was able, on Friday, to close this chapter. The negotiators of the four other countries, however, said they were confident that the outstanding problems (mainly linked to the restructuring of the steel sector, or to the granting of fiscal aid and other aid schemes to foreign investors) may be resolved in coming weeks.
On Friday, Poland nonetheless noted "very substantial progress" in its negotiations on the veterinary and plant health part of the agricultural chapter, Polish chief negotiator Jan Truszcznyski said. In all, Poland called for some 13 transitional periods in order to allow its agri-food industry to absorb the financial and economic consequences of alignment to the very strict EU health norms, he said. In concrete terms, says Mr Truszczynski, there is already agreement on the fact that 113 dairies or milk processing factories, which do not meet the EU criteria, may continue production according to their current methods and in the current infrastructures until end 2006, on condition, however, that their products are sold on the local market only and not exported towards the Community market. The same transitional regime will also apply to 332 processing plants for red meat and poultry, which will benefit from a transitional adjustment period until end 2007, and for 40 fish processing firms, whose transitional period will run till end 2007. The only question still outstanding concerns the Polish request to grant a large number of Polish milk dairies the right to produce, on well separated production chains, not only milk compatible with European norms (hence exportable to the Community market) but also milk that is not conform, intended for the local Polish market only. The number of Polish dairies that would be subject to such a "dual use" regime (and which should be necessarily subject to very strict food safety controls) is still considered too high by the EU. Mr Truszczynski promised to submit a new, shorter list "in the next few days".