Brussels, 23/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a letter to his colleagues and the European Commission in view of the European Council of Brussels on 24 and 25 October, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set out in how he saw this informal summit unfolding, beginning with a a working dinner between the Heads of State and Government devoted to enlargement (see yesterday's EUROPE, pages 4 and 5 for the latest work of the Council). Here is the text in full on the letter by the President of the European Council.
"Dear Colleague, I look forward to seeing you on 24-25 October in Brussels for our autumn meeting of the European Council. I intend to organise a meeting "in the spirit of Seville" with a focused agenda as prepared by the General Affairs and External Relations Council. I refer to the cover note and annotated agenda forwarded by the GAERC, which will form the basis for our meeting.
We will start our meeting on 24 October at 19.30 with a report by the Chairman of the Convention on the Future of Europe on progress of the Convention's proceedings. This will be followed by a brief exchange of views as was the case in Seville.
At 20.45 Heads of State and Government and Foreign Ministers will have separate dinners.
The main topic for the dinner of Heads of State and Government will be the outstanding financial issues in the accession negotiations. It is of paramount importance that we come to a decision on these issues in Brussels in order to be able to communicate all the items lacking in the financial package to the Candidate Countries and be able to meet the deadline for conclusion of the negotiations in Copenhagen in December. That is why I suggest that we commence with these, the most difficult issues in order to facilitate agreement on conclusions on Friday.
During their dinner, Foreign Ministers will discuss the fight against terrorism (see page 10) and the issue of North Korea. (see yesterday's EUROPE, page 9)
We resume our meeting on Friday 25 October at 9.30 with an exchange of views with the President of the European Parliament.
Our first working session will start at 10.00 on the basis of the Presidency's draft conclusions. We will start by discussing the overall assessment in the light of the Commission's regular reports and strategy paper as well as the issues of monitoring and safeguards. Once we have come to a decision on this part of the conclusions, we will continue with the budgetary and financial issues. I expect this discussion to take up the whole morning session.
At 13.00 there will be separate lunches for Heads of State and Government and Foreign Ministers.
Heads of State and Government will discuss any outstanding issues from the morning session.
Foreign Ministers will discuss the situation in the Middle East and Iraq during lunch.
The second working session will start at 15.15. If we have finalised the conclusions on enlargement, we will then have a discussion on Kaliningrad and endorse the conclusions adopted by the GAERC on 22 October in view of the up-coming EU-Russia Summit. This will end our adoption of the conclusions.
Before the meeting finishes we can briefly touch on any business that needs to be discussed.
At an appropriate time, the Greek Prime Minister will give a status report concerning the development of the European Defence Dimension (ESDP/Berlin+). In this context the question of Amber Fox could also be raised.
I hope to conclude the meeting at 18.00 on Friday, but intend to continue the meeting if needed".
According to certain sources, President Chirac has announced his intention of raising the issue of the situation of telecommunications sector (including the infrastructures and components industry).