Accession partnership accord on fast track for approval

Date: 15/01/1998

THE EU's framework 'accession partnership agreement' paving the way for enlargement to central and eastern Europe should be approved by foreign ministers by the end of this month.

Diplomats hope the speed of the move will give the European Parliament enough time to approve the deal by mid-February and enable each applicant's individual partnership, which Union governments say will not need further parliamentary approval, to be completed by mid-March.

Despite earlier protests, the short framework document contains a 'conditionality clause' under which the EU could take "appropriate steps" if candidates showed "unjustified lack of progress" towards Union standards, or a "serious failure to respect the commitments contained in the Europe Agreement".

Commission officials say this means in practice that pre-accession aid for certain sectors - for example, veterinary hygiene - would be reallocated if it seemed there was not enough political will to reform it. Should there be a total breakdown in relations, the entire partnership could be frozen.

Much as expected, the partnership agreements will focus closely on the needs of each applicant as defined by the Commission's opinion (avis) on its readiness for membership, and will be supplemented by the candidates' own national programmes to reach EU standards.

Union governments, overriding Commission objections, will almost certainly retain control over any subsequent changes to the agreements. "The most important thing is that whatever procedure is agreed upon does not lead to unnecessary delays," stressed a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek, who fears endless bureaucracy could slow down simple priority readjustments.

Overall, the applicants seem to accept the partnerships' broad philosophy. "This all seems workable," said one Lithuanian official.

There have, nevertheless, been some rumblings that the applicants are not being offered enough involvement in their specific accession deals. "It seems that the Commission does not want any cooperation on this," said one disgruntled central European. "The Poles, for example, gave the Commission lots of comments which it seems not to have even read. On the other hand, the Commission expects to be closely involved in our national programmes, which it is demanding by the end of January. It is a little unfair."

Until things become clearer, however, possible malcontents like Poland are remaining quiet. "The accession partnership is being discussed now by the Polish authorities," said one Warsaw official. "In general we accept the guidelines and priorities, but feel this should be the subject of deeper discussion in the future."