Madrid casts doubt over target date for enlargement

Date: 15/11/01

By David Cronin

Spain's forthcoming EU presidency fears its workload on the enlargement talks will be three times bigger than it expected, calling into question whether the goal of concluding negotiations by the end of 2002 can be realised.

Officials believe that insufficient progress has been achieved in talks with the 12 applicant states, each of which has to close 31 thematic 'chapters'. They predict Madrid will have to chair talks on a combined total of 150 chapters - 100 more than they had planned for.

Unless a dramatic breakthrough is achieved in the closing stages of the Belgian presidency, they fear that a deal on the Union's farm support regime cannot be achieved before next summer's French elections.

And Spain itself is reluctant to accept that its share of the EU's €31 billion per-year structural fund should be cut to share the money among the newcomers. One Spanish diplomat described the 'roadmap' for concluding the talks by the end of next year as a "trap for us". "The [Commission's] proposal to deal with agriculture just before the French elections is not realistic," said the diplomat. Spain's caution was in stark contrast to the upbeat tone of enlargement chief Günter Verheugen after presenting the Commission's annual report on accession states this week. He claimed up to ten new states could be welcomed into the EU in 2004.

Despite the Spanish gloom, some hurdles were cleared yesterday. Poland's new government dropped its demand for EU labour markets to be completely opened to its citizens after accession. It also said it could accept a transition period of 12 years before foreigners could buy Polish land; the previous administration had insisted on 18 years.

Spain's forthcoming EU presidency fears its workload on the enlargement talks will be three times bigger than it expected, calling into question whether the goal of concluding negotiations by the end of 2002 can be realised.