Continued differences with EU may threaten talks

Poland's chief negotiator signalled continued differences with the EU over the costs of enlargement, but said he was sure a "mutually acceptable compromise" could be sealed. Denmark and the Commission would prefer to wrap up talks at a meeting of foreign ministers of the EU and applicants in Brussels next Monday and Tuesday. "It is absolutely essential that as many questions as possible are settled before the summit," Commission spokesman Jean-Christophe Filori told a news briefing yesterday. "If this is not the case, we run the risk of having the European Council (summit) devoted to bargaining about milk quotas etc, and this can go in any direction, and may also lead to the collapse of the Council," said one EU insider adding that Poland remained the main worry. "The single greatest threat is that the Polish government is making a political miscalculation, setting their demands so high that they are unable to climb down," he said. Earlier, Prime Minister Leszek Miller told reporters in Warsaw that the EU had a further euro 1.2 billion up its sleeve to offer the 10 candidates under financial arrangements agreed in 1999 to fund eastern expansion. Yesterday, Poland, Slovenia and Lithuania all demanded more money than the 15-nation EU put on the table at the penultimate round of membership talks. (Reuters) J.K.