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On September 13 and 14, 2000 meeting of the Chief Negotiators and senior officials of the EU candidate countries took place in Vilnius. The meeting was also attended by the representatives of the European Commission and the French EU presidency. The EU applicant country Turkey participated in separate sessions of the meeting important to it.
The Latvian delegation was headed by the Under-secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chief Negotiator in the EU accession negotiations Mr. Andris Kesteris.
The regular meetings of such type (in Bucharest in 1998, in Bratislava in 1999) is one of the rare opportunities for all parties involved in the EU enlargement process to discuss the topical issues related to the EU enlargement. The most essential issues among those discussed during this meeting were related to the common direction of the EU enlargement process and some of its technical aspects, the currently on-going Intergovernmental Conference on the EU institutional reforms and the Communication Strategy of the European Commission. The meeting also provided an opportunity for the participants to exchange their opinions on current issues of the EU enlargement on an unofficial basis. The meeting was concluded by a joint statement of the EU candidate countries, emphasising the historical importance of the EU enlargement, which is a development towards the widening and deepening of a secure and prosperous Europe and the significance of its consistency, transparency and speed. It was pointed out that the participants welcomed the intention expressed at the Feira European Council to open negotiations in all areas of the acquis with the most advanced candidate countries which started negotiations in 2000, as early as possible in 2001.
The participants of the meeting were also convinced that the accession negotiations could be concluded with any prepared candidate country during the year 2001 and expressed their expectation that this possibility will be included in the "accession scenario" to be adopted by the European Council in Nice in December 7-9. The Statement expresses conviction that during the Nice European Council the EU member states will reach an agreement on the EU institutional reform and, thus, the EU will be ready to admit new member states starting with the end of year 2002 The EU candidates consider that the European Conference will provide them with theopportunity to express their opinion on the EU institutional reform and participate in the discussion on the future of Europe.
The joint statement acknowledges the necessity to inform the people in both EU member states and candidate countries on the EU enlargement.
The full text of the statement is available at http://www.urm.lt/new/official/000914d.htm
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