Historic agreement reached on EU enlargement

EU president Denmark said a complete agreement had been reached on the historic enlargement of the European Union into former…

EU president Denmark said a complete agreement had been reached on the historic enlargement of the European Union into former communist Eastern Europe.

Poland today agreed to an EU enlargement offer after pushing talks into extra time over its demands for more favourable terms, Swedish Prime Minister Mr Goeran Persson said.

Warsaw's acceptance of an EU funding package was followed shortly afterwards by agreement by the nine other candidates set to join the bloc in 2004, a Danish presidency source said.

A Danish presidency official said all 10 candidates had accepted financial packages at the end of a two-day summit which also set December 2004 as the target date for deciding whether Turkey had reformed sufficiently to open accession talks.

READ MORE

"We have a deal," the official said, after Swedish Prime Minister Mr Goran Persson and Polish Finance Minister Mr Grzegorz Kolodko confirmed that Poland, the biggest and toughest candidate, had accepted a financial settlement.

Diplomats said the 15 EU leaders had given Danish Prime Minister Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen a mandate to conclude talks with a few minor financial adjustments for the candidates, ending marathon negotiations with Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus and Malta.