Belgium supports swifter end to EU talks, signals that 2001 is unlikely date

Belgium on Tuesday backed Poland's efforts to speed up European Union (EU) entry negotiations and tackle the hardest enlargement issues during the second half of 2001, when it holds the EU's rotating presidency. However, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, on a one-day visit to Warsaw, suggested that finishing Poland-EU negotiations this year would not be possible. Verhofstadt said also that during Belgium's six-month presidency Poland would be faced with the challenging task of closing EU chapters on farming, public finances and regional policy. He reaffirmed Belgium's commitment to seeing through the enlargement process and reiterated that everything possible should be undertaken to bring the negotiations to a close in either 2001 or 2002. (Reuters, Gazeta Wyborcza, p.22) P.J.