Prodi appeals for ‘sense’ as candidates reject Euro 40bn deal

Date: 05/12/02

By Dana Spinant

JUST a week to go before the crucial enlargement summit in Copenhagen, tension is mounting among EU leaders after key member states and candidate countries rebuffed a financial deal proposed by the Danish EU presidency.

Germany rejected the Danish package on Tuesday, declaring it was too expensive. However, angry farmers in Poland and the Czech Republic stepped up pressure on their governments to demand more cash from Brussels and warned against concluding accession talks on unfavourable terms.

'We are getting onto thin ice,' Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission said yesterday (4 December) in an address to the European Parliament. Prodi warned that the summit may fail if it is seized with 'dozens of minor points' and urged a compromise on the final package at the next General Affairs Council meeting (9-10 December).

'Too many points are still unresolved and we have only a few days left,' Prodi said. He appealed to the 'good sense of the leaders of the candidate countries and those of the 15 [member states]' to settle the remaining difficulties quickly.

However, hopes for an early deal on negotiations with the 'first wave' of candidate countries were dashed earlier when Germany said a compromise could only emerge at the summit.

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder rejected the financial package put forward by the Danish presidency after a Berlin meeting with Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Commission spokesman Jean-Christophe Filori said 'There is still lots of work to be done. What is required is political courage and flexibility on both sides.'

Both Germany and the candidate countries contested the €40 billion offer put forward by the Danes.

The package includes €23 billion in aid for poor regions between 2004 and 2006 and a gradual phasing in over a decade of farm subsidies, starting from 25% of the level currently received by member state farmers.

Denmark has already upped the financial offer to four states (the Czech Republic, Malta, Slovenia and Cyprus) by some €300 million, in a revised note presented to member state permanent representatives. But the candidate governments still face an uphill task to make the deal appear acceptable to a sceptical public opinion.

Meanwhile, a crucial Franco-German summit in Germany was in the spotlight last night, as President Jacques Chirac was expected to try to soften Schröder's position on the enlargement package.

The two countries are struggling to harmonise their views ahead of Copenhagen.

Just a week before the crucial enlargement summit in Copenhagen, 12-13 December 2002, tension is mounting among EU leaders after key Member States and candidate countries rebuffed a financial deal proposed by the Danish EU presidency.