Foreign Minister criticizes EU for vagueness over final membership terms

The EU will be not able to present its financial conditions, mainly concerning agriculture, to candidate countries during the summit in Brussels which will start this week. There is however, a chance that these will be presented at December's summit in Copenhagen, said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder. His comments would leave candidate countries with, "No time for negotiating conditions with the EU, but just an option to say yes or no to membership," said Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewiecz. "We are aware that the EU is not able to give more than it has, or to go beyond the EU budget. However, negotiations involve reaching a compromise, leaving us with an "in" or "out" question. and not knowing the terms is damaging both from a psychological and political point of view," Cimoszewiecz added. EU countries have different and often conflicting opinions concerning EU agricultural policy toward candidate countries. Germany wants to reform direct subsidies to farmers, while France objects. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 11) M.T.