EU summit must not stop enlargement talks - Germany

A German government official said yesterday Berlin did not want a European Union summit this week to put a roadblock in the way of negotiations on EU enlargement, signalling a softer stance on how to pay for it.

The official said Berlin still wanted the EU to agree before December that agricultural aid, which eats up half the bloc's budget, should be cut progressively after 2006, but said this should not stop talks on phasing in aid for the newcomers.

"No (EU) member state is calling "phasing in" into question in principle but we are discussing how this is financed. This does not have to be sorted out with the candidates, but internally," he said, referring to the EU's existing members.

EU leaders meet in Brussels today and tomorrow to endorse a European Commission recommendation that the bloc concludes negotiations with 10 mainly east European countries so that they can join in 2004. The 10 are: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta.

But EU countries remain divided over how the bloc's biggest ever expansion should be financed, especially the sensitive issue of farm aid, which Germany and other "net contributors" to the EU budget want cut.

The official confirmed Germany was no longer looking for farm cuts to start before 2006, when the EU's current financing arrangements expire.

He said, however, Germany wanted guarantees that aid would start to fall from 2007 and that a decision would be taken confirming this before 2006.

"We are interested in a high degree of certainty (that this will be the case) and preferably in legal rather than political form," the official said. "One could imagine something in the accession treaties... but this could take various forms."

"We don't want enlargement to end in financial disaster," he said, noting European Commission proposals on phasing in aid for the newcomers went beyond the agreement that exists until 2006.

He said he did not expect the Brussels summit to produce any figures on how much aid the candidates could get.