Danish minister says it's December or never for EU candidate countries

"Negotiations with countries wishing to enter the European Union must be com pleted by December 2002," said Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Per Stig Moll er. Many politicians, including European Commission President Romano Prodi, have suggested that if the negotiations were to be delayed by a few months, nothing terrible would happen. Denmark will take over the presidency of EU f or the second half of this year and Minister Per Stig Moller has presented a draft plan for the period. According to the document, all the non-financial chapters should be completed in July and September and any country still hav ing failed to close any of these chapters would be considered unprepared for entry. (Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 6) M.M.