COPENHAGEN: The European Union has opened a history-making summit in Copenhagen with a stark warning to Poland against pressing for too much money.
The Danish Prime Minister, Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said that EU leaders were prepared today to end the division of Europe that lasted for half a century.
But Mr Rasmussen warned Warsaw that the EU was prepared to go ahead with enlargement without Poland. He said that failure to do a deal this week could delay Poland's entry to the EU by years.
"There is a real risk that candidate countries that are not ready to conclude negotiations in Copenhagen will see their accession to the EU postponed until 2007. I think that is the most probable scenario," he said.
The EU is offering 10 candidate countries a financial package worth €40 billion but Poland wants the EU to spend the €42.5 billion budgeted for enlargement in 1999.
Mr Rasmussen said that there was no room for manoeuvre on the financial package on offer to candidate countries, adding that some EU member-states already saw the offer as too generous.
"At this moment, I have no more money," he said.
The 15 EU leaders arrived in Copenhagen last night for two days of talks aimed at finalising the agreement to admit 10 new member-states in 2004.
They are expected to set 2007 as a date for Bulgaria and Romania to join the EU but remained divided before the meeting on whether to give Turkey a date for the start of accession negotiations. Turkey wants to start negotiations in 2003 but some member-states argue that Ankara has not yet proved its commitment to democratic values and human rights.
Italy's Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, suggested yesterday that Turkey could start negotiations at the beginning of 2004.
"As things stand now, we're fixed on a date that I believe is supported by Britain, Spain, Greece, Belgium and Portugal, that negotiations should start on January 1st, 2004. That gives Turkey one year to put into effect the reforms that are needed to open its markets and to reform its constitution and human rights," he said.
France and Germany have proposed that Turkey should start negotiations in 2005, pending a review of its democratic institutions and human rights record in 2004.
The United States has exerted great pressure on the EU to give Ankara an early date for the start of negotiations but Mr Rasmussen said he had told President George W. Bush that it was a matter for Europeans to decide.
"We don't allow ourselves to be pressured from any quarter," he said.
Most candidate countries have signalled that they are willing to accept the financial package on offer from the EU.
However, Mr Rasmussen acknowledged that Poland's demand for more meant that today's negotiations will be difficult.
"I imagine there will be pretty tough and frank discussions between ourselves and the candidate countries," he said.
