14 - 20 June 2001

Enlargement expected to be high on the agenda

by Ivan Brincat

Prime Minister Dr Eddie Fenech Adami arrives in Goteborg, Sweden today to take part in the European People’s Party enlarged summit. This summit is being seen as a summit on enlargement of the union and this was hinted at by Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh earlier this week. Ms Lindh said the Swedish presidency will press for a strong signal from the Goteborg Summit regarding enlargement for candidate countries.
During his stay in Sweden, he will be accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Joe Borg. The two are expected to have some bilateral meetings tomorrow even though these have not yet been set.
An interesting encounter with the newly sworn-in Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi could also take place today during the EPP summit.
The EU-US summit will also be held today. United States President George Bush is making his first trip to Europe since he became President.
The European Council meeting in Goteborg, in which Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami will take part in during a working lunch on Saturday, is deemed to be an enlargement summit.

“The most important issue for this summit is still to achieve a breakthrough in the enlargement negotiations. The result of the referendum in Ireland makes this even more vital,” the Swedish presidency is stating.
In Goteborg, heads of state and government will submit the guidelines necessary for the completion of the process. The Swedish presidency also hopes to be able to present a more exact timetable for enlargement than exists at present even though this is still deemed to be difficult.
At the Nice Summit, the member States had expressed the hope that candidate countries would be able to take part in the European parliamentary elections in 2004.
However, with the possibility looming of negotiations not being concluded by the end of 2002, there is now talk among some member States that candidate countries could still take part in the European Parliament elections and their MEPs will take their seat in Parliament when the country joins the EU.
The Irish Prime Minister will be expected to give his view on the referendum in Ireland on the Treaty of Nice which resulted in a no vote. The Treaty of Nice is a necessary prerequisite for continuing the process of enlargement with the 13 candidate countries.
The coming days will be very important even for Malta. The
government has set 1 January 2003 as the date when it wants to conclude negotiations with the European Union.
So far, the government is on the right track, with Malta opening 27 chapters, 16 chapters of which have been closed.
The government had expected to open the chapter on Justice and Home Affairs by now but this should be opened and closed during the Belgian presidency leaving only the very difficult and politically sensitive chapters for the very end.
However, unless signals from Goteborg are different, the scenario of further delays in the negotiation process are increasingly possible now especially in view of elections taking place in Germany and France next year. Many feel negotiations will be concluded in the first months of 2003.
Both the candidate countries and even certain member States will be interested in the outcome of the Goteborg summit vis-à-vis enlargement.
Italy’s new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s comments will be closely observed as will be those of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. The Spaniards take over the presidency in January 2002 and are being very cautious as they do not want to be perceived as the member State which delayed the enlargement process. They are however aware that some of the most difficult chapters will have to be discussed during their term of presidency.