Warsaw and Prague cool on farm deal but others give it cautious welcome

Date: 31/10/02

David Cronin reports from the candidate countries' mini-summit in Copenhagen

ANDERS Fogh Rasmussen is in countdown mode. 'For 45 years Europe was a divided continent,' the Danish premier declared. 'In 45 days we can finally close this dark chapter in Europe's history.'

The message was almost as cheery as the yellow and pink façades of the Copenhagen houses, close to where the speech was delivered, at the candidate countries' mini-summit on Monday (28 October).

The European Council meeting in Brussels 48 hours earlier may have been marred by squabbling between Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac over that hoary dinosaur, the Common Agricultural Policy. Yet Rasmussen wished to put all that behind him and concentrate on sprucing up for December's summit in the Danish capital, when ten states are due to be given the green light for EU membership.

He should have every reason to don his finest suit for the final jamboree; Pat Cox, president of the European Parliament, recently dubbed the meeting 'a rendezvous with an unparalleled act of reconciliation'.

Several member states harbour deep concerns about last Friday's deal on footing the enlargement bill. Still, there was a palpable sense of relief among many officials that the Brussels summit did actually end with a deal.

One Danish diplomat said he feared the package would have been far worse from the candidate countries' point of view and that the existing EU countries would have been less generous when allocating structural funds to the newcomers.

Yet the most important thing was that the summit didn't leave huge questions about money wide open. Failure to thrash out a package would make it more difficult for the aspiring EU governments to win public backing for their accession in referenda due next year.

As one official in Copenhagen remarked, letting the Brussels summit conclude without a deal would have been 'like walking on quicksand, with the ground slipping under you'.

Nevertheless, some candidate states were keen to express their disappointment with aspects of the package.

Poland quibbled with the provisions on direct income support for farmers. Whereas the Union has agreed these payments should be gradually phased in so that farmers in the new member states will be entitled to the same subsidies as those in current EU countries by 2013, Warsaw wants a far shorter transition period.

It is suggesting 2006 as the date when its agricultural sector should reap the full rewards of EU entry. 'The initial level of direct payments and their transition period to phase them in cannot be regarded as satisfactory,' was the blunt assessment of Polish premier Leszek Miller.

His complaints cannot be taken lightly. Poland has a population of 39 million. Not only is it the biggest of the ten countries on course for EU membership in 2004, it boasts one of the largest farming populations in Europe; some 27 of its workforce depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

More ominously for the Union, it is also one of the candidate countries where some of the most acerbic bashing of the enlargement project has been heard.

Warsaw's fears are shared by Prague. Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla warned that he may struggle to have his accession bid approved in a referendum if the Brussels deal is etched in stone.

'Our farmers must be given fair treatment,' he said. 'If the agreement is unfavourable, then people may not accept it.'

Hungary's Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs is equally unhappy that his farmers will have to wait almost a decade before achieving parity with their counterparts in the current EU-15. 'We do not consider it an appropriate offer,' he said.

While there is a general unease among candidate countries with the farm support proposals, the view is not exactly unanimous. Slovenian premier Janez Drnovsek described himself 'generally satisfied' by the results of the Brussels summit.

And Lithuanian leader Algirdas Brazauskas is taking a slightly different tack.

While he agrees the transition period should be shorter, he insists it would not be wise to make Lithuanian farmers much richer than other sections of the population.

'We realise that direct payments have to be considered with the overall level of income in the country,' he commented.

Romania and Bulgaria - the two laggards in the accession talks - have cause to be a little happier now than they were a few weeks ago when the European Commission appeared to rebuff their calls for a firm target date for joining the EU.

Last weekend, the Union leaders held out the prospect that a detailed 'road-map' for the two states' accession can be finalised before the Copenhagen gathering. Ion Iliescu, Romania's president, trumpeted this declaration with joy.

Turkey's political elite, though, looks set to continue frowning during its dealings with Brussels. It was apparent this week that Ankara does not understand precisely what is required for it to be welcomed into the EU 'family'.

Earlier this month the Commission applauded recent constitutional reforms aimed at improving Turkey's human rights record - yet said that the situation on the ground left much to be desired.

But President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said he did not believe there were 'shortcomings' in the manner described, pointing to new laws on making prisons less austere and granting rights to Kurdish citizens.

However, he did not give details of how these changes would be implemented.

Report on the candidate countries' mini-summit in Copenhagen, 28 October 2002.