Commission plans applicants’ scoreboard to measure progress

Date: 08/06/2000

By Simon Taylor

THE European Commission plans to draw up a 'scoreboard' by the end of this year setting out which of the countries seeking to join the EU are best prepared for membership.

The move is designed to fend off mounting pressure for the Union to set a target date for enlargement, which intensified this week when the foreign ministers of the six front-runners called on EU leaders to give a commitment at the 19-20 June Feira summit to fix a date by the end of this year for completing the negotiations. They added that this should be no later than the end of 2001.

Commission officials say the scoreboard will show the areas where each candidate country has brought its legislation into line with Union rules and those where more work is needed. The scoreboard will be based on the regular reports which are drawn up by the Commission every year on each country's performance but will also, for the first time, allow an across-the-board comparison to be made of each applicant's progress.

Officials say this system would, for example, make it easier to substantiate accusations that the Polish parliament has been slower in passing the legislation necessary to prepare for EU membership than other applicant countries.

Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen plans to finalise the first scoreboard in November, in time for the Union summit in Nice on 7-8 December.

Applicant country diplomats have cautiously welcomed the move, although they stressed that it must not be used simply to fend off requests for target dates. "Our expectations are that it will be a help as long as it is objective. It depends on how it is done and how it is presented," said Poland's Ambassador to the EU Jan Truszczynski.

The Commission's initiative comes after French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin reignited the explosive debate about the timetable for enlargement last month by promising that the Union would set entry dates for all the candidates by the end of his country's six-month EU presidency in December.

Jospin's comments, made during a visit to Hungary, were welcomed by many applicant countries including Poland, which has been calling on the Union to fix a date to prevent any foot-dragging by EU member states in the enlargement negotiations. Warsaw argues that setting a date would provide a clear time frame to implement the reforms needed to prepare for membership.

But Verheugen insists that the timetable for enlargement should be determined by the progress made by the applicants themselves and not by any artificial deadlines. "We do not believe that it will be possible to give dates. Nobody is excluding it, but lots of preconditions will have to be fulfilled and that is not looking likely at the moment," he told MEPs recently.

The Commissioner argues that the Union should only commit itself to being ready to expand by 2002 by completing a range of internal reforms to streamline its decision-making procedures in preparation for enlargement.

The six leading candidate countries have set 2003 as their own target date for joining the EU, but fears about the slowing pace of negotiations have prompted concern that the first wave of enlargement might not take place until two or three years later.

The European Commission plans to draw up a 'scoreboard' by the end of 2000 setting out which of the countries seeking to join the EU are best prepared for membership.