EVENTS
Three More EU Accession Negotiation Chapters Opened for Latvia October 24, France, the presiding state of the European Union, opened three EU accession negotiation chapters for Latvia, two of which were marked for closing. The three chapters launched for Latvia are fisheries, industrial policy, and consumer and health protection. It was agreed that on November 21 the chapters on industrial policy, and consumer and health protection could be provisionally closed. The next five negotiation chapters - free movement of services, free movement of capital, company law, transport policy, economic and monetary union - are planned to be opened in November. During the Portuguese EU presidency eight negotiation chapters (common foreign and security policy, external relations, competition policy, small and medium-sized undertakings, statistics, culture and audio-visual policy, science and research, education and training) were opened for Latvia. The negotiations on 5 of them - common foreign and security policy, statistics, small and medium-sized undertakings, education and training, science and research - were provisionally closed on June 14. MFA Latvian Projects to Get 24.76 Million Euros from PHARE Funds in 2000 October 18, the European Commission Management Committee approved Latvia's national PHARE programme for 2000 providing for 24.76 million euros to be allocated to Latvian projects. In addition cross-border co-operation projects (2 million euros), advance payment for Latvia's participation in European Community programmes (1.3 million euros), membership fee for Latvia's participation in EC programmes "Leonardo", "Youth", "Socrates", and the 5th Framework Programme (1.85 million euros âÀ“ the financial memoranda on these allocations have already been signed on July 28, 2000) are also financed from the PHARE funds. The European Commission Management Committee approved the following projects: support to society integration in Latvia (1.1 million euros), Latvian national quality assurance system (2 million euros), establishment of the Latvian Fishing Industry Administration consistent with the Common Fisheries Policy (2 million euros), Latvian eastern border management and infrastructure development project (3.16 million euros), development and introduction of drug control and drug addiction prevention strategy for Latvia in accordance with the EU regulations (1 million euros), state budget and financial management project (3 million euros), development of the national statistics system meeting the EU requirements (2 million euros), regional development capacity improvement (1.5 million euros), equalization of economic and social conditions in Latgele (6.21 million euros), equalization of economic and social conditions in Zemgale (2.75 million euros).
The implementation of the projects will begin as soon as the financial memoranda on these projects between Latvia and the European Commission are signed. The contracting of the projects should take place by the end of November 2002, while the funds granted from the PHARE programme for 2000 should be used by the end of November 2003. Ministry of Finance Latvia's Project Proposals for the PHARE Programme 2001 Discussed October 24, negotiations between Latvia and the European Commission on Latvia's national PHARE programme for 2001 took place in Brussels. The parties discussed Latvia's project proposals for PHARE financing in 2001. The European Commission representatives expressed support to the following seven projects: development of customs and sanitary border inspection infrastructure in ports and on the railway, implementation of the tax reform and modernisation programme for the Central and Eastern European countries, introduction of the Common Agricultural Policy, development of a joint migration information system, promotion of society integration in Latvia, efficient prevention, control and combating of organised crime, strengthening of the national data inspection and further introduction of the personal data protection law.
In addition the Ministry of Transport will prepare a project on navigation safety and the Ministry of Welfare - on promotion of dialogue between the social partners - employees and employers. Press Service of the Special Tasks Minister for Co-operation with International Finance Institutions ACCENTS Extracts from the Speech by Mr. Indulis Berzins, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, at the Enlargement Seminar in Stockholm, September 28, 2000 "Latvia is satisfied with the pace of the enlargement process this far. Helsinki formally ended the political division of the candidates into groups. All the candidate countries have to be given an equal chance to catch up. There are two preconditions for this: opening of all the remaining negotiating chapters as early as possible next year and each candidate country's preparedness. This will allow to reach "the point of no return" with regard to the discriminating division of candidates, which is no longer valid today. Nobody will have to wait for Latvia. We are prepared to be among the first in the Central and Eastern Europe to join the EU. Position papers in practically all the negotiation chapters, including Agriculture, Justice and Home Affairs and Environment, will be submitted by Latvia to the European Commission by the end of the French presidency. We expect that an early agreement regarding the Institutions and the Financial and Budgetary Provision chapters will be reached among the EU members. Individual approach is crucial, especially in the elaboration of the EU negotiating positions. Application of the same negotiating positions towards all the candidates may produce ill-fated results. Agricultural sector in the Baltic States constitutes a considerably smaller share of the GDP than in some bigger candidate countries, or let us take another example - free movement of persons - the Baltic States will never cause problems in this area." "The healthy competition among candidate countries is motivating and this does not exclude co-operation among them. Because this is also the responsibility of the candidate countries to speed up the whole process. On the grounds of a comparable situation in many areas there is a pressing need for a regular exchange of information among the candidate countries, in particular those, which are close neighbours. Consultations and co-ordination of the position papers allow to learn more about the EU position in every concrete chapter, as well as to avoid unwelcome consequences in the negotiations. This is particularly important in such areas as taxation and transport." "The Helsinki Council has set the EU's internal target date to be prepared for the acceptance of the first new Member States on January 1, 2003. Parallel to this, all the candidate states have set their own internal target dates. Compliance with the internal target dates is each one's own responsibility. So is the maintenance of the pace and quality of reforms. Latvia aims at completing the accession negotiations by the end of 2002 at the latest." DOCUMENTS Information on Latvia's Negotiating Position in the Section "Agriculture" October 31, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia adopted the negotiating position of the Republic of Latvia in the section "Agriculture". The position paper has been elaborated in co-operation with the associations of agricultural branches and farmers' organisations. During the elaboration process several discussions have taken place in the Council for Co-operation of Agricultural Organisations and the European Affairs Committee of the Parliament. The position paper reflects Latvia's readiness to implement the EU acquis in the agricultural sector upon the accession to the EU. In the paper Latvia assumes the responsibilities to implement necessary restructuring in the pre-accession period and defines its application for the EU financial support schemes for agriculture. The negotiating position was elaborated according to the following national interests: To create preconditions for successful development of Latvia's agricultural sector in the EU common economic space on equal basis by utilising the sectoral support envisaged for the Common Agricultural Policy; To envisage efficient production volume at the level according to the volume of local market self-sufficiency; To ensure the maximally efficient and complete use of Latvia's rural land in production and maintenance of culturally historic environment; To maintain the employment level in the rural territories in accordance with the level of economically sound production volume of agricultural goods.
The position paper contains requests for transitional periods as regards the fulfilment of veterinary requirements and animal welfare, restructuring of processing enterprises, as well as for several technical adjustments and derogations. Volume-wise the production quotas are requested in the position paper in order to provide development opportunities for Latvia's agricultural sector and to ensure agricultural production at least on the level of inner consumption. The requirements of Latvia are in line with those submitted by other candidate states in respect to both the length of transitional periods and the volume of requested production quotas. Information on Latvia's Negotiating Position in the Section "Environmental Protection" October 17, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia adopted the negotiating position of the Republic of Latvia in the section Environmental Protection. Environmental protection is one of the most complicated negotiating positions as its implementation is related to significant expenses both in the state and private sectors. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development has elaborated a detailed financial plan for the introduction of the EU requirements in the environmental protection sector. The plan comprises resources of both EU pre-structural funds and state and local government budget as well as envisages external funds in the form of loans. The financial plan will be elaborated in greater detail, nevertheless, it is clear that in the period till the year 2015 Latvia will have expenses in the amount of LVL 850 million a substantial part of which can be covered from the EU structural funds. To a great extent Latvia's legislation already corresponds to the requirements of the EU and it has been envisaged to fully harmonise the laws of Latvia with the current EU directives till January 1, 2003. However, the introduction of the EU requirements will take more time and therefore the negotiating position envisages several transition periods and in separate cases derogations. The fact that the EU legislation in the environmental protection is continuously developing has to be taken into account as well. No transition periods will be necessary in such fields as information on the environment, assessment of the impact on the environment, control over chemical substances and genetically modified organisms, noise control, climate changes and civil defence. MFA FOR MORE INFORMATION Delegation of the European Commission
Address: Tornu Str. 4 - Block 1C (Jacob's Barracks), Riga, LV 1050, Latvia
Phone: (371) 732 52 70
Fax: (371) 732 52 79 Saeima European Affairs Committee
Address: Jekaba Str. 11, Riga, LV 1811, Latvia
Phone: (371) 708 73 24, (371) 708 73 65
Fax: (371) 708 73 66, (371) 708 71 00
E-mail: eiroinfo@saeima.lv
http://www.saeima.lv/elk European Integration Bureau
Address: Basteja Blvd. 14, Riga, LV 1050, Latvia
Phone: (371) 728 79 04
Fax: (371) 728 66 72
E-mail: info@eib.lv
http://www.eib.lv/ USEFUL LINKS "Europe Whole and Free: Latvia's Choice", speech by Mr. Indulis Berzins, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, in the Czech Republic, October 17, 2000: http://www.am.gov.lv/en/?id=3581
Speech by Mr. Indulis Berzins, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, at the Enlargement Seminar in Stockholm, September 28, 2000: http://www.am.gov.lv/en/?id=3583 Directorate of Foreign Assistance Programme Co-ordination: http://www.sppkp.lv/ | 
