Search for Common Line on EU Enlargement

German Chancellor Schröder hopes to come up with a shared position on European Union eastward enlargement when he meets with French president Jacques Chirac in the Brandenburg town of Storkow on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the German leader rejected the higher costs to finance the enlargement endeavor proposed by Denmark after a meeting with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Berlin. Rasmussen is presently on a whistlestop tour of member state capitals to try and garner support for his proposed financial package for EU enlargement.

Denmark, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, is leading negotiations with the ten first-tier EU candidate countries: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

"The finance package does not reflect our expectations," Schröder told the press, adding that he doesn't expect EU foreign ministers to agree on financing enlargement at a meeting early next week. France and Britain have also protested again the Danish proposal.

Preparing for Copenhagen

Paying for the addition of ten countries to the European Union in 2004 will be the main issue at the Copenhagen EU Summit on Dec. 12 and 13.

At the previous EU Summit, in Brussels in October, the 15 heads of state had agreed to a financial framework amounting to nearly €40 billion ($ 40.6 billion) to cover the costs of enlargement from 2004 to 2006.

After often difficult and strained negotiations with the ten candidate countries, however - during which most candidates complained of being offered a poor financial deal - the Danish prime minister presented a revised finance plan in late November that would require a further € 900 million.

Germany opposes new package

But the new financial package has run into rough weather with heavyweight contributors to the enlargement project, Germany along with France and Britain complaining that the package offers too much.

The German government, has calculated that Fogh Rasmussen's plan could actually amount to as much as € 2.5 billion. Schröder figures that current EU member states will have to shoulder an additional €1.6 million burden because the new EU countries, which will officially join the Union on May 1, 2004, will already be entitled to receive EU funds starting January 1, 2004.

Rasmussen's revised plan leaves the 25 percent starting point for direct payments to candidate countries unchanged but offers a possibility of state aid for farmers and the transfer of 20 percent of the funds for rural development.

Encouragement for Turkey

Schröder and German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, will also aim to find a common line on Turkish accession to the EU when they meet with the French President and Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin (photo, left) Wednesday evening.

In an address to the French parliament on Tuesday, Villepin announced that Turkey must institute further reforms to meet the EU's democratic standards before accession talks can begin. The EU will judge Turkey based on the country's deeds, he said.

Earlier in the day Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller predicted that even if accession talks began soon, Turkey would not become a full member state for 15 to 20 years.

The EU has set no date for Turkey to join the Union. Ankara is anxious to get feedback from the Union, especially since it has made numerous reforms to meet EU requirements.

The EU insists that, among other things, the government must make improvements in the treatment of minorities in in the country and the poor human rights situation there.