Prime Ministers of candidate states meet in Warsaw

Yesterday's summit in Warsaw of the Prime Ministers of eight countries aspir ing to the join the EU, has been called unprecedented in the history of EU n egotiations by Prime Minister Leszek Miller. The Prime Ministers appealed to the EU for increased subsidies for the expansion as well as a reduced contri bution to the EU budget. "The payment should be divided in such a way so as to avoid the risk of losing our macroeconomic stability," said Miller. "The situation of the net budget of new EU members should be better than before j oining the alliance," said the ministers in a joint announcement. They reite rated the appeal of the EU financial ministers to increase the subscription with an increase in subsidies for agriculture. Therefore the subscription sh ould be lower or some "compensation mechanisms" should be applied. They also agreed that the decisions on the future EU constitution can be taken only wi th full and equal participation of the new EU candidates. "It is a very impo rtant issue, common to us all. Otherwise how could we persuade our citizens to say "yes" in the referendum?" said Estonia's Prime Minister, Algirdas Bra zauskas. (Gazeta Wyborcza, Nov. 16-16; p. 1)A.Z.