Brussels, 02/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, on the occasion of a new round of membership talks, the Danish Presidency began to examine the official responses from the ten candidate countries to its "compromise packages" presented last week (see EUROPE of 28 November, among others). Meetings were held in succession on Monday with Lithuania, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, and Cyprus and Poland (at the end of the evening). They will continue on Tuesday with Slovakia, Hungary and Latvia and then, on Thursday, with Malta and Estonia. The Danish Presidency refused to comment on the unfolding of the meetings, but, as far as we can judge from the declarations made afterwards by diplomats from candidate countries, the negotiators on both sides will have a great deal of work to do if they wish to effectively complete (as the Presidency hopes) most of the negotiations during ministerial sessions scheduled for the beginning of next week (9/10 December) after the General Affairs Council.
Thus, for example, the position taken on Monday by the Czech Republic, on the whole reflects the message that the Prime Ministers of the four Visegrad countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) sent on Sunday during a joint meeting in Budapest, namely that the improved offers of the Danish Presidency are a "step in the right direction" although they remain "insufficient", mainly as far as direct agricultural aid and budgetary compensations are concerned. Pavel Telicka, Czech negotiator, presented his own "agricultural package" on Monday in which Prague mainly calls for a rise in direct aid (an entry level higher than 25% in 2004, and increases that are bigger than those proposed by the EU) as well as a reduction in the transitional 10-year period. The absolute priority for the Czech Republic remains, however, the possibility to increase European direct aid by additional national funds ("topping up"). The Presidency's proposal suggests that candidates should be able to use, from 2004-2006, up to 20% of their rural development budget to financing national top-up funding, but Ms Telicka stressed that her country calls for greater flexibility in this connection. Prague also calls for improved agricultural production quotas and overall improvement in the budgetary situation after membership. Mr Telicka considers the ball is now in the court of the EU Fifteen. "We could be close to an agreement perhaps even this week or during the ministerial meeting next week, except on one or two questions that could remain open until the Copenhagen summit because of their political nature. However, there is a lack of will on the EU's side, which could lead us to a problematic situation for which the Czech Republic would not have responsibility", he said. Janez Potocnik, the Slovenian discussion partner, pointed out to the EU that Slovenia is also calling for more budgetary compensation for the period 20904-2006, as well as an increase in regional aid (the Brussels Summit had reduced the budget initially foreseen by EUR 2.5 billion). Lithuania, on the other hand, seems ready to accept the Presidency's package (with minimum agricultural improvement), on condition that it obtained technical clarifications linked to the dossier on Kaliningrad (conditions needed for launching, in 2003, the feasibility study for high speed trains inking Russia to the enclave.