EU summit: no more cash for candidate countries

European Union leaders met representatives of the ten candidate countries in the Danish capital Copenhagen on Thursday for a historic two-day summit that is to decide about the Union's enlargement in 2004. The Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country currently holds the presidency of the union, said the European leaders' task was to finally re-unite the continent that was divided for nearly 45 years. One of the key issues on the summit's agenda is however more prosaic - how much money the ten new members would get after joining the EU. The Union is offering 40.5 billion euros, but several of the candidate countries, especially Poland, are pressing the EU to add another two billion to help the newcomers overcome the huge costs involved in becoming a member of the union. But Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen was firm in his statement:

EU summit: no more cash for candidate countries

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, photo: CTK

"We'll also depend on a genuine commitment and willingness to compromise from all parties, candidate countries as well as current member states. The presidency has put forward an individual package for each of the ten candidate countries with which we can close negotiations here in Copenhagen. The packages contain a number of concessions to candidate countries while we are still respecting the financial framework agreed in Berlin and Brussels. I think it's fair to say that some member states feel that we have been too generous but at the end of the day they accept our strategy, they have accepted the packages but send us a very clear message that we have gone to the limit. So at this moment I have no more money."

Before the summit began, Mr Rasmussen made an appeal to the candidate countries to accept the final offer or else they would risk delaying the Union's historic enlargement for years.

"It is our ambition to conclude negotiations with up to ten candidate countries at this summit in Copenhagen. Flexibility, political will and a good dose of political realism will be decisive for our ability to live up to that ambition. I'll not say it's a question of now or never but it's a question of now or postponement for years - maybe for many years. Our position is clear. We will conclude negotiations with those candidate countries that are ready at this summit. I hope and I believe that this will be all ten. As presidency we will do our utmost to achieve that result here in Copenhagen."

And Radio Prague's Rob Cameron now joins us from the summit in Copenhagen. Rob, we just heard Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen being very clear about the EU's final offer to candidate countries. What is the atmosphere like at the summit now, what are the latest developments?

"Well, the latest developments are that the members of the European Union have agreed that package because there are two stages of negotiations here at the summit. The EU members have to agree on what to offer the candidates and then, of course, the candidates have to accept it. On Thursday night, at about one o'clock in the morning, Mr Rasmussen announced that the EU members had approved this 40.5 billion Euro aid package spread over three years for the candidate countries."

So does that mean that negotiations are going to be closed in Copenhagen?

"Well, I just mentioned the first stage. The second stage is that the EU now has to present that package to the ten candidate countries and then the ten candidate countries have to accept it. Of course, as we've already heard, several of those countries led by Poland are leaving it right up to the wire. They want to try and fight for the best possible deal before they sign up for EU membership. I think what's going to happen today is that there are going to be some very tough negotiations between them, Mr Rasmussen, and the leaders of the delegations, ahead of the deal being signed."

Rob, did you talk to any of the Czech negotiators in Copenhagen about what the Czech Republic is being offered by the EU?

Cyril Svoboda, Vladimir Spidla and Pavel Telicka, photo: CTK

"I did but of course that's still very much a matter of speculation. The Czech delegation arrived late on Thursday night. Among them was the Czech Republic's Chief Negotiator for EU Membership and Deputy Foreign Minister Pavel Telicka. I asked him what was on the table for the Czechs:"

PT: "Well I think that we have a number of serious issues still on the table so I think that at this very stage, irrespective of what is in the press what is being mentioned by a number of politicians, you will get from me neither the tactics nor the goals or arguments. It is too serious at this moment to describe in detail but I can assure you that we have a number of important issues, which do concern the overall financial situation of the Czech Republic in the first three years of EU membership and we've got a few issues in the agriculture sector."

RC: Do you resent criticism then, in the Czech media, that you haven't fought hard enough for concessions from the EU and that if you had been as aggressive and persistent as the Poles then the Czechs would get a better deal?

PT:"Are you serious with that question? If you are serious, I'll answer it but if it was just intellectual provocation then I'll leave that without comment."

RC: I'm just repeating commentaries in Mlada Fronta Dnes, what Vaclav Klaus said...

PT: "I would say that's Mlada Fronta Dnes and some politicians who have read Mlada Fronta Dnes. For me, what is important is the real outcome of the talks, the concrete figures that really matter and of course, more than that even what will be important is the final figures after the talks will finish."