Brussels, 23/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Dutch minister of foreign affairs, Bernard Bot and his foreign affairs minister Atzo Nicolaï presented the work programme of the Dutch presidency to the press on Wednesday. The leitmotiv will be "realism and ambition", explained Mr Bot. Realism, first of all, because even after enlargement and adoption of the Constitution, the European agenda in this "historic year for European integration" remains very full and demanding. Ambition, next, because the presidency will have to manage a Union that is geographically more vast with financial and budgetary challenges that are increasingly important. Bot reasserted that, "Our aims are ambitious and our mindset is realistic…Realistic ambition is what our citizens ask of us today" the EU had to better, he said, "to keep the public on board".
Overall, the work programme of the Dutch presidency will be concentrating on five of the following fields: 1) enlargement. The final enlargement has to be digested and important decision taken by the end of the year on Bulgaria and Romania ("our objective is to conclude negotiations") as well as those on Turkey; 2) freedom, security and justice. This will be the main subject of the European Council on 5 November. Five years after Tampere and the Treaty of Amsterdam, it is time to move forward on the basis of the evaluation presented in June by the Commission. the fight against terrorism will be highlighted, as well as harmonisation of asylum and migration policy and legal and police cooperation; 3) Development of an effective external policy. following accession of the ten new members, expectations from citizens to see the EU play a more important political role are "higher than ever". The Dutch presidency will "try and satisfy these expectations" by continuing the work on the large number of points but with particular attention on four subjects: Asia, the strategic partnership with the Mediterranean and the Middle East, multilateralism, European security and defence policy. 4) Sustainable economic growth. Pursuing structural reforms is essential and the "principles of the stability pact have to be respected". Bot believes that the new countries have to be included in the pact. As for the Lisbon strategy, the EU has to focus on implementing the conclusions of the March European council. The presidency is also seeking to cut red tape. The Commission has already made efforts in this area (notably through the simplification of the acquis) but the presidency is seeking to go one step further by introducing a methodology for assessing administrative costs. 5) The future EU budgetary system and preparation of the financial perspectives for 2007-13. The objective is not to reach an agreement by the end of the year but rather get the principles and guidelines adopted on the bases of which an agreement could be reached in 2005.
Mr Bot also indicated that no decision had yet been taken on the date for signing the constitution and the place for signing. Mr Bot said that as for the presidency of the European Commission it was absolutely necessary to find a candidate before 22 July. The Irish presidency would be unable to close this case and the Dutch presidency would obviously be following it up. Bot said that it was still too early to speculate on what the outcome would be.