EU: Four states refuse to endorse a financial deal for candidate countries, Denis Staunton reports from Brussels.
European Union leaders arrive in Brussels this evening for two days of tough negotiations on how to pay for EU enlargement. The Danish presidency has warned it will keep the leaders in the city until a deal is reached but few EU diplomats believe that agreement is likely.
The leaders will agree formally that the 10 candidate countries (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta) are eligible to join the EU in 2004 and they will agree on how to implement institutional changes outlined in the Nice Treaty.
But four countries, led by Germany, are refusing to endorse a financial package for the candidate countries that includes extending direct payments to farmers in central and eastern Europe.
Germany says it will not approve extending direct payments until other member-states agree to phase out the subsidies after 2006. France and Ireland are leading the opposition to any link being made between financing enlargement and reforming the Common Agricultural Policy.
In a letter to the leaders on the eve of the summit, the Danish Prime Minister, Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said he would continue the meeting beyond its planned conclusion time of 6 p.m. tomorrow if necessary.
"It is of paramount importance that we come to a decision on these issues in Brussels in order to be able to communicate all the items lacking in the financial package to the candidate countries and be able to meet the deadline for conclusion of the negotiations in Copenhagen in December," he wrote.
The Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday that last week's referendum on the Nice Treaty had opened the way to enlargement.
"I congratulate the Irish people for making the right choice. It demonstrates their openness and sense of responsibility. Overcoming their concerns and fears, the Irish people have raised their eyes to the wider picture of Europe's history and looked to the long-term common interest.
"In recent years Ireland's economy has grown tremendously. It has meshed with the European Union as a whole and prospered as a consequence. And now the Irish can look forward confidently to further development within an enlarged EU," he said.
Mr Prodi said he was confident that EU leaders could agree to a financial package for enlargement based on the Commission's proposals. And he stressed that those proposals are in line with budget limits agreed by all member-states in Berlin in 1999.
"I know some of the present member-states have reservations regarding the budgetary sustainability of these proposals and they want further guarantees. It is right to wonder about the EU's future financial footing. The Commission stands by its position: all our proposals are in line with the financial ceilings laid down at Berlin and are without prejudice to any future decisions," he said.
Britain yesterday dismissed a French call for a reduction in the rebate on London's contributions to the EU and said it would not let the issue confuse negotiations on crucial farm subsidy reforms.
Britain, one of the biggest net contributors to the EU's budget, negotiated a partial rebate in 1984, which was reaffirmed at the 1999 summit in Berlin.
The French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, who was among the signatories in Berlin, said on Tuesday that Britain might have to relinquish part of the rebate to help the EU meet the cost of taking in 10 new members.
Britain's Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said there was no question of the rebate being up for negotiation in Brussels.
"I quite understand why the French president might be saying that, however it was he who signed up to the conclusions of the Berlin summit," Mr Straw said.