Brussels, 18/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday the European Commission refused the idea of the "timing" of the accession negotiations for Romanian accession, planned for 24 November, four days away from the general elections and the first round of the presidential elections in the country, which had been arranged to give an electoral boost to the government of prime minister Adrian Nastase. Allegations to this effect were made recently by the Romanian opposition. Günter Verheugen's spokesperson informed the press that the fact that the next negotiations meeting on 24 November had nothing to do with the elections as this date had been set a long time ago. The spokesperson affirmed that the thing that counted was whether Romania was prepared to conclude negotiations. He added that at this stage it was too early to tell whether negotiations could be finalised next week. Commissioner Verheugen has strived in recent weeks to get a conclusion to the negotiations with Bucharest (before the end of the month), which had posed a number of questions about possible Commission support to the Nastase government's election campaign. On 5 November Mr Verheugen told the press at the end of a meeting with Mr Nastase (EUROPE 9 November p 12) that, "It is my very strong belief that it is not only possible but necessary to conclude negotiations with Romania before the end of the month."