Union applicants set ambitious timetable for enlargement talks

Date: 17/12/1998

By Simon Taylor

THE six leading applicants for EU membership have launched a bid to get half way through enlargement negotiations by the end of next June.

The five former Communist countries plus Cyprus have decided to set out their positions on a further eight areas of Union legislation by mid-January, adding to the seven already discussed.

This would mean that discussions on half of the 31 areas of Union law could, in theory, be completed by the end of Germany's EU presidency.

Bonn has already agreed that there will be two negotiating sessions at ambassador-level and one at ministerial level during its six months at the helm. “The Germans are determined to start negotiations on these eight chapters by next June,” said one European Commission official.

But the applicants are unlikely to achieve their goal of completing half of these by June, judging by the experience of the previous round.

EU negotiators say talks have been provisionally concluded in only three of the first seven areas discussed, with the Union reserving the right to re-examine the rest in future as its legislation changes.

They also suggest there is a gulf between the EU and the applicants' views of what constitutes meeting the requirements for membership. One official said that in some areas, candidates claimed they had put the necessary legislation in place, but the Commission knew from its work on preparing them for membership that there were considerable weaknesses in their administration which would make it difficult for them to comply with Union rules.

Estonia, which submitted 12 papers in September, is planning to present three more on external relations, customs union and competition rules. Hungary, which presented 11 papers in the autumn, will cover these three areas plus the free movement of goods in its next submission. The Czechs presented three papers on fisheries, statistics and company law last week and are planning to submit five more - on customs, external relations, competition, free movement of goods and consumer protection - by mid-January.

Cyprus was due to present its eight papers this week, and Poland and Slovenia plan to hand over theirs by early next month. As the second-wave applicants continue their campaign to join formal negotiations next year, Malta expects the Commission to complete its updated report on Valletta's progress towards meeting the criteria for EU membership by the end of February. It hopes this will pave the way for the country to be invited to start talks by the end of the German presidency.

But Slovakia's hopes of getting an updated progress report early next year reflecting the political changes made by the new government have been deflated by warnings from senior Commission officials that there is little point drawing up a new report until the reforms have been implemented.