Brussels, 12/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - Here, as usual, is the text of the letter of invitation from the President of the European Council to his colleagues. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen writes:
"I intend once again to organise the meeting "in the spirit of Seville" with a focused agenda as prepared by the General Affairs and External Relations Council. I refer to the annotated agenda forwarded by GAERC, which will form the basis for our meeting.
Our meeting will begin on 12 December at 19.100 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 an exchange of views.
At 20h.45, Heads of State and Government and Foreign Ministers will have separate working dinners. An informal dinner will be arranged for participating Ministers of European Affairs. The main topic for the dinner of the Heads of State and Government will be the enlargement. The Presidency's ambitions is to have the agreement of Member States to the package presented to candidate countries as a fair basis for the conclusion of negotiations. We will also need to decide on the next stage of Turkey's candidature. During their dinner, Foreign Ministers will discuss the Middle East and Wider Europe including the Northern Dimension and the Balkans.
We resume our meeting on Friday 13 December at 10.00 with an exchange of views with the President of the European Parliament.
Our first working session commences at 10.30 on the basis of the Presidency's draft conclusions. We will discuss any outstanding enlargement issues.
At 13.45 there will be separate working lunches of Heads of Government and Foreign Ministers. Heads of State and Government will have an open-ended discussion on the future organisation of the Presidency of the Council on the basis of the report by the Presidency. The Foreign Ministers will discuss Iraq and ESDP.
At 15.00 we will embark on the second working session. This session will be used for completing any outstanding issue. In this context we will also take stock of the progress so far concerning the follow-up to the Prestige disaster. After having finalised the conclusions we can briefly touch upon any other business that needs to be addressed.
At 17.00 we will have a meeting with the candidate countries that are ready to conclude negotiations in Copenhagen. This will be the formal conclusion of the accession conferences. At 17.30 we will be joined by the other candidate countries. At 17.45 there will be a short ceremony and family photo with Heads of State and Government and the Foreign Ministers from EU Member States and the candidate countries, the President of the European Parliament, the President of the Commission and the Secretary-General of the Council.
At 20.15 Her Majesty Margrethe II and his Royal Highness the Prince Consort host a reception for the Heads of State and Government and the Foreign Ministers from EU Member States and the candidate countries, the President of the European Parliament, the President of the Commission and the Secretary-General of the Council. At 21.00 a working dinner, hosted by the President of the European Council, will be held for Heads of State and Government of EU Member States and candidate countries, and the President of the Commission and the Secretary-General of the Council. The topic for discussion during our dinner will be "Our Common Future".
Hopefully, the meeting can be completed on Friday. However, the Presidency is prepared to continue the meeting into the weekend if that should prove necessary in order to achieve the results aimed for.
As negotiations with candidate countries have not yet been finalised, it may be necessary to arrange additional meetings between the Presidency and these countries during Friday. This may, of course, lead to some changes to the above programme."