UKIE to ask European Commission for simplified SAPARD procedures

Poland intends to ask the European Commission (EC) to simplify the procedures of the SAPARD program, announced Minister for European Issues Danuta Huebner after a meeting of the European Integration Committee (UKIE). Currently, the subsidies have to be settled within three years and, if approved by the EU, Poland will be granted a four-year period for allocating the money. In related news, EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen went to the Hague yesterday in order to persuade Dutch deputies not to hinder the decision to accept new members to the Union. "It is the best-prepared enlargement in the history of the alliance. Now we know more about the candidate countries than in earlier enlargements. Any risk is excluded. We believe in Poles - not just because of their beautiful blue eyes," said Verheugen. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A1; A5) A.Z.