Towards the new Europe of 25″ “

As expected, the European Council in Copenhagen last week (the last under the Danish Presidency) was able to conclude the membership negotiations with the first ten candidate countries: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, which will all become members of the European Union from 1 May 2004, following the signing of the membership Treaties laid down at Athens on 16 April last year. Welcoming the decision, Danish premier Rasmussen spoke of a “new period of freedom, prosperity and peace”. During the summit, the Fifteen closed the last two chapters of the negotiations on which fundamental divergences existed with the candidate countries: the common agricultural policy and the financial and budgetary questions. The main difficulties were posed by Poland, whose government did not accept the EU commitment established by the European Council in October. Four times during the summit Poland asked for an increase in the financial package equivalent to a further one billion euros, but encountered the firm and compact opposition of the Fifteen. In the course of Friday, Warsaw even went so far as to threaten abandonment of the negotiating table. Thanks also to German intervention, which succeeded in smoothing the waters, Danish prime minister Rasmussen asked and obtained a new negotiating mandate, which granted the increase requested. In full respect for the expenditure ceilings fixed by Agenda 2000, the Union reached agreement with the ten new members on a global financial package for the period 2004-2006 equivalent to 40,852 million euros. This allocation covers agriculture, structural interventions, internal policies, the costs of administration and the special instruments for treasury flows and for temporary financial compensation to the benefit of the candidates. As far as Bulgaria and Romania are concerned, the heads of state and of government confirmed the objective of accepting them as member states in 2007, congratulating them on the progress made but emphasizing the need for further “judicial and administrative reform that would contribute to advancing the overall preparation of Bulgaria and Romania for membership”. As regards the Turkish request to obtain a definite date for the beginning of membership negotiations, the summit encouraged Turkey “to pursue with vigour its process of reform”, specifying that it would be the European Council in December 2004 that would evaluate whether Turkey has achieved conformity with the political criteria for membership and that would consequently begin the negotiations. The date of December 2004, therefore, satisfied the Turkish requests to leave Copenhagen with the certainty of negotiations and represents an acceptable compromise for all the current member states. Simultaneously, the EU will extend its customs union with Turkey and increase the financial provision of the pre-membership fund. The one regret of the summit was the failed reunification of Cyprus. In spite of the presence in Copenhagen of the UN envoy, the two parts of the island – Greek and Turkish – failed to reach agreement on the compromise; so that’s why only the Republic of Cyprus will join the Union for the time being. On the act of reunification, however, the northern part would automatically enter the EU without any further negotiations. The parties do not exclude the signing of the UN accord on 28 February 2003, which would then permit the signing of the membership Treaty for the whole island of Cyprus. The Fifteen, lastly, approved three declarations, respectively on the Middle East, on Iraq and on NATO.