EU summit in Copenhagen - little chance of negotiating better terms?

History is being made in the Danish capital Copenhagen this week, as the Czech Republic and nine other countries are finally being invited to join the European Union. The biggest enlargement in the EU's history is the conclusion of years of long and sometimes thorny negotiations on conditions for membership. It would be no exaggeration to say that joining the EU - subject to a referendum next year of course - will be the most significant step taken by the Czech Republic since the country came into existence in 1993. Radio Prague's Rob Cameron is in Copenhagen for the momentous summit. Rob, what's the general atmosphere like? The candidates for EU membership have only two days to negotiate, so one might expect a lot of tension and anxiousness...

EU summit in Copenhagen - little chance of negotiating better terms?

Bella Center, Copenhagen, Photo: CTK

"I think so. I should point out, though, that it's hard to say from the press area I'm sitting in now. I'm in a huge barn of a building, a very modern building and there must be about a couple of thousand desks here. If a bomb were to go off in this room then we would lose about half of the world's journalist population. But the EU leaders and the leaders of the candidate countries themselves are getting ready for some very tough talks this evening."

So basically what journalists are doing on the first day of the summit is just sitting and waiting?

"Yes, that's all we can do. The first press conference is not due until five-thirty this afternoon, so it's a case of waiting for the heads of the delegations to come out from their negotiations and tell us what they have agreed. But we are not expecting to get any kind of final agreement or announcement until tomorrow, possibly late until tomorrow or even Saturday, if it goes over."

So what exactly are the participants of the summit discussing on their first day?

"Well, there is of course a lot of last-minute discussion about money. As you know, some of the candidate countries aren't happy at all with what they've been offered from the European Union. Chief among them is Poland, which is leading a campaign to get more out of the EU and the EU is warning them not to push their luck. As for the Czechs, it seems they'll come out of this summit with one of the worst deals. They have been offered the lowest direct payments from the EU, just 70 Euros per person."

Neighbouring Poland is supposed to be getting 160 Euros...

"Yes, even Slovenia is getting more. It's not really clear why. Only the head of the EU delegation in Prague, Ramiro Cibrian said that the Czech Republic is one of the richer candidate countries, and therefore will receive lower direct payments. Although again, that doesn't make much sense because Slovenia is richer than the Czech Republic, and yet it's getting more. Mr Cibrian also said that the Czech Republic doesn't have old nuclear power stations that need to be shut down and mothballed, which is the case in some other countries and that also increases the level of direct payments that each country gets."

Now, how much of a chance is there that Czech negotiators are going to leave the summit satisfied?

"Pretty slim, I think. As I've said, in terms of direct payments, they've been offered 70 Euros per capita in the first three years after they join the EU. At the most, they will be able to come away with 80-85 Euros but it's not even certain that they are going to get more than the 70 Euros. I think a lot of people now are just wondering why the Czechs weren't more aggressive in their negotiations, like the Poles. The Poles, it seems, will get something out of insisting that they receive more money and the Czechs, it seems, have just been too polite, too reserved and they haven't been banging their fists on the table hard enough."