Called to formalize EU enlargement to the first ten candidate countries, the General Affairs Council held in Brussels on 10 December succeeded only partially in reaching agreement on the still open EU membership negotiation packages. To the latest offers made by the Danish presidency that represent an increase of 1.6 billion euros over the global expenditure on EU enlargement decided by the European Council of Brussels in October the candidate countries have on the whole given a positive response. Only the debate on the financial and budgetary questions was entirely deferred to Copenhagen. As regards agriculture, the proposals of the Fifteen were substantially accepted, with the exception of Poland.
