Setback for hopes of swift end to entry talks

Date: 02/11/00

By Simon Taylor

ENLARGEMENT Commissioner Günter Verheugen will tell applicant countries next week that 2002 is the earliest realistic date for completing EU membership talks, dashing the hopes of leading candidates that they could be wrapped up next year.

His message will also reinforce doubts that the first new members can be admitted before 2004.

The European Commission's reports assessing the candidates' preparations for membership will paint a mixed but generally positive picture of the progress made by all 13 countries. However, they will conclude that even the most advanced applicants will not be able to finish talks on the most difficult areas for another two years.

Diplomats argue that completing entry talks in two years' time would still leave the door open to a first wave of enlargement in 2003 - the target date set by most candidate countries. But they admit that to make thispossible,negotiations would have to be concluded in the early part of 2002 and EU member states' national parliaments would have to ratify the accession treaties quickly. This, they say, makes 2004-2005 a more likely scenario.

In the reports due to be published next Wednesday (8 November), the Commission will generally praise the progress made by applicants - especially the Czech Republic, which will receive a much more positive assessment than last year, Slovenia and Hungary. But Verheugen will issue a strong warning to candidates over their efforts to stamp out corruption. "Corruption should not be taken lightly. It is like a festering sore if it is not tackled energetically," he said during a visit to Poland last week.

Applicant countries will also be told to take urgent action to improve the quality and size of their national administrations to ensure that EU legislation is applied properly, amid growing concern that the poor state of candidates' civil services and judiciaries is becoming a major problem as enlargement draws nearer.

Next week's reports will also boost the hopes of the six countries which started entry talks this year that they can join at the same time as the first wave. The Commission will praise the performance of Malta and Slovakia, which have provisionally closed negotiations in almost as many areas of EU law as front runners like Poland. But it will be very tough on Romania, criticising its slow progress in implementing economic reforms.

Verheugen will also set out the steps which countries must take over the next two years to qualify for membership. Surprisingly, the Commission will suggest that talks on free movement of workers - generally seen as one of the most difficult questions because of German and Austrian fears about immigration - could be completed earlier than negotiations on issues with financial implications such as agriculture, regional aid and budgetary affairs.

Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen is to tell applicant countries that 2002 is the earliest realistic date for completing EU membership talks, dashing the hopes of leading candidates that they could be wrapped up in 2001.