Brussels, 31/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Council working group responsible for drafting the Accession Treaty (the initial version is in English, then translated into the other 20 languages of the enlarged EU) held its last meeting on Friday, without all the differences of interpretation that have emerged these past few days having been ironed out with all ten acceding countries.
Thursday, at a meeting of Coreper, the Fifteen, it seems, were able to clarify at least three controversial issues, two of which raised by Poland (semi subsistence farmers will receive Community aid of 1,250 euro year instead of the 1,000 euro that some Member states ad anted to read in the conclusions of the European Council of Copenhagen, and the transitional arrangement relating to 3% VAT will cover the whole list of agricultural products, and not only a limited number) and the other by Latvia (which will benefit from the same treatment as Poland and the other two Baltic States regarding suckling cows).
The Fifteen did not, however, make concessions on a series of other issues in suspense, notably with Poland (mechanism for the payment of direct aid, the level of the milk quota, procedure for implementing the safeguard cause, political declaration on the respect of the Polish anti-abortion law, etc.), the Czech Republic (pharmaceutical products, excises on certain local distillery products, treatment of some breweries located in a specific geographic area, etc.), Hungary (pharmaceutical products)
The other acceding countries seemed to be able to accept the draft text of the Treaty as formulated by the working group. The Greek Presidency of the EU has convened a further meeting of Coreper for Wednesday, when the final text should be approved by Member States, in view of being immediately forwarded to the European Parliament. Between now and then, informal contacts will be held with the acceding countries in view of removing certain obstacles.