Brussels, 15/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - Enlargement will be the central theme at the General Affairs Council on 18 November, which, four weeks away from the European Council of Copenhagen, will be of paramount importance in the final phase of accession negotiations for several reasons:
Foreign Affairs Ministers from the Fifteen will have a lengthy exchange of views (11.30 H - 15. H) with counterparts from 10 first wave accession countries. This meeting will allow respective positions to be clarified and possible routes for compromise to be explored on the main issues still pending in accession negotiations, notably agriculture (direct aid, quotas), regional aid (grants from Structural and Cohesion Funds), the budget (contributions from new members to EU budget, compensation to net contributors). A summit will take place on 15 November in Warsaw with Prime Ministers from 10 candidate countries. It is possible that on Monday the ten countries will present a common position to the Fifteen regarding some of the problems to negotiate.
At the beginning of this week, the Danish Presidency and the Commission held a second informal consultation session with each of the candidates. Results included: a) direct agricultural aid - all candidates insisted on a decrease that is sensitive to transition period (EU proposes 10 years) and on a starting level higher than the 25% offered by the EU for the first year (2004). On Friday the Danish Presidency indicated that it will be "extremely difficult" to modify the EU offer; production quotas offered by the EU are judged to be unsatisfactory due to the "bad" reference periods used by the Union. The Danish Presidency said that they were getting closer despite not having any solution; b) structural aid - the reduction of the 2004-2006 budget (from EUR 25.5 billion to EUR 23 billion) was criticised by the candidates. Many of them asked that the EUR 25 billion "economised" is redeployed to increase the room for financial manoeuvre in other areas, such as direct aid; c) budgetary contributions - candidates are requesting a phasing in and almost all are protesting against the calculation hypothesis (too optimistic they say) used by the EU when working out the financial position of the new members in 2003 and the first years following accession.
The Fifteen are expected to fix the accession date on Monday, which is very likely to be 1 May 2004. Two dates are on the lists (April or May 2004) but 1 May appears to have the most support according to Danish Presidency indications on Friday. Until now, 1 January 2004 was the date most often mentioned (although the EU had never made it official, always speaking of enlargement "before the next European elections in June 2004") but two reasons have pushed the Fifteen to put enlargement off by a few months: - it will leave more time to the national parliaments to ratify the accession treaty; accession on 1 May will offer the two sides an additional margin for financial manoeuvre insofar as the candidates can pay their contributions from this date only, whereas they can, despite everything, all benefit entirely from allocations planned for the whole of the year 2004. This explains the importance of arranging the date for enlargement sufficiently early and before the final phase of financial negotiations. The Danish Presidency explained that, "Accession that is slightly delayed is financially advantageous to the candidates".
The results of the Monday discussion will guide the Danish Presidency in the elaboration of a "final packet" that could be presented to the candidates at the end of next week. "We intend to present a proposal that enables a resolution of all the pending problems, explained the Presidency, highlighting the fact that this would occur under its own supervision. The objective is to reach an agreement with the candidates on this final packet by the time of the Council in December just before Copenhagen.
The Council on Monday will be preceded in the morning by Association Councils with Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic and followed in the evening by Ministerial negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania. Other subjects on the Monday agenda are:
Preparation of the Copenhagen Summit: mainly enlargement (see above) and reform of the Council of Ministers.
Reform of the EU Council Presidency. The Danish Presidency will submit three different models, as well as a proposal aiming to strengthen the role of the High Representative. The idea of an elected European Council President will also be discussed.
The European Commission will present its 2003 work programme to Ministers.
Action Plan for the war on terrorism. The Council will take note of an updated Road Map.