Latvia launches EU accession negotiations on eight more chapters and closes two chapters [30 Mar 2001]

On 30 March 2001 negotiations at the level of Chief Negotiators on the accession of the Republic of Latvia to the European Union (EU) took place in Brussels. During the meeting the mid-term results of the negotiations during the Swedish EU presidency were summed up. The next meeting is scheduled for 17 - 18 May 2001; it is expected that the results of the first half of the year will be reviewed during the meeting at the level of Ministers of Foreign Affairs on 11 - 12 June 2001.

At the meeting today it was officially decided to open negotiations on eight chapters: "Free Movement of Goods", "Social Policy and Employment", "Energy", "Telecommunications and Information Technologies", "Regional Policy and Co-ordination of Structural Instruments", "Environment", "Customs Union" and "Financial and Budgetary Provisions". Opening of the chapters is very important. It crests the work done by the experts of the Latvian delegation to the negotiations and the European Commission during the previous half a year. The total number of the opened chapters âÀ“ 24 chapters after the first year of the accession negotiations testifies to the readiness of Latvia to work quickly and precisely.

In separate cases, when the preparation work has been especially successful, it is possible to close a chapter right after it has been opened. Today Latvia has closed one of the technically most complicated chapters - "Free Movement of Goods". The leading countries (for example, Hungary and Poland) had succeeded to close this chapter only after the second year of negotiations. The success of Latvia in this matter is based on the work of the public administration institutions in order to ensure lifting of the technical obstacles to the inflow of Latvian goods in the European Common Market already before accession to the EU. In the first meeting during this presidency the chapter "Culture and Audio-Visual Policy" has also been closed.

In the accession negotiations Latvia focuses its attention on the chapters that according to the "road map" approved by the European Council are defined as priority chapters during the Swedish presidency. Latvia purposefully continues supporting its national interests by means of transition periods in the chapters "Free Movement of Services" and "Social Policy and Employment", however, in the negotiations on these chapters it is also possible to achieve substantial progress in the immediate future.

This year the negotiation process has entered a qualitatively new phase. If up to now Latvia had closed comparatively easy negotiation chapters that did not affect substantial national interests, then currently the negotiations proceed on chapters where Latvia has concrete requests. In some of the chapters (for example, "Social Policy" and "Environment") Latvia has put forward more requests than the other candidate countries (including Estonia and Lithuania). Each request should be substantiated and argued in detail; therefore the negotiations on these chapters take a longer time. The time and work invested in the negotiations increase the chances of achieving for the inhabitants of Latvia favourable terms of the accession to the EU.

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