Verheugen insists Austria cannot slow pace of enlargement talks

Date: 10/02/2000

By Simon Taylor

ENLARGEMENT Commissioner Günter Verheugen vowed this week to keep up the pace of the enlargement negotiations despite opposition from Jörg Haider's Freedom Party to admitting new countries from central and eastern Europe into the EU.

"We should not pursue a policy which accommodates Haider such as doing everything more slowly," Verheugen told European Voice in an interview ahead of a meeting in Brussels next week which will launch formal talks with six more candidate countries.

Verheugen insisted that the new government in Austria would not deter the Union from its resolve to push ahead with enlargement. "We have a once-in-a-lifetime job. The basic strategy cannot be revised when the internal policy in one member state, even an important one like Austria, changes," he said.

Verheugen pointed out that despite the electoral success which made the Freedom Party the second largest force in Austrian politics last October, Haider had only won the support of a minority of the country's population, and added: "If Austria turns against enlargement, it would have serious economic effects because Austria benefits more from enlargement than any other member state."

The Commissioner also played down suggestions that there was a risk of right-wing groups in other EU member states following Haider's example and exploiting fears about enlargement to win electoral support. "When I look at the situation in other member states I do not see a single case which could lead to comparable voter behaviour," he said, insisting that the Freedom Party's success in Austria had more to do with internal political problems than with Union expansion.

But Verheugen admitted that there was a "frightening lack of knowledge" about enlargement, and revealed that his staff were working on an information campaign to set out the arguments for expanding the EU.

He also rejected criticism from the six second-wave countries that the Commission was denying them the chance to catch up with the six leading countries.

The Commission is planning to open talks with the second group on at least five areas of Union legislation next month, but countries such as Slovakia and Lithuania insist they are ready to start negotiations on far more areas and claim the Commission's strategy will make it harder for them to make up ground on the half-dozen countries which began formal talks in 1998.

But Verheugen denied this, saying: "This concern is unfounded. In Helsinki we introduced the principle of differentiation. This means that no country has to wait for another." He added the countries in the second wave would begin negotiations on more chapters this year than the first group.

Verheugen also warned against opening too many chapters too fast just for the sake of political symbolism. "We must keep the balance between speed and quality," he insisted, adding: "We must pay attention to speed but we can only set a date for accession when the political, economic and social consequences of enlargement are manageable. Anything else might be politically easier in the short term but in the medium term would severely endanger the functioning of the EU."

Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen has vowed to keep up the pace of the enlargement negotiations despite opposition from Jörg Haider's Freedom Party to admitting new countries from central and eastern Europe into the EU.