European Commission: Strategy Paper and Report 2003

Concluding the negotiations

For all ten acceding countries, negotiations on both the chapters ``agriculture'' and ``financial and budgetary matters'' are not yet provisionally closed, although most issues in these chapters which are not linked to the financial framework to be proposed by the Union have been dealt with. Moreover, even if the chapters ``regional policy'' and ``institutions'' have been provisionally closed, specific questions linked respectively to the budgetary allocations and to institutional matters (transition rules in 2004; number of Parliamentarians and qualified majority threshold) have been reserved for the last stretch of negotiations. As to the chapter `other matters', a number of issues still need to be considered. Furthermore, eight other chapters still need further negotiation: the chapters ``competition'' for five countries, ``transport'' for the Czech Republic, and ``taxation'' and ``customs union'' for Malta.

In the following, the Commission lays out its view on how to address some essential points for completing the negotiations.

Subsections

• The financial framework
• How to deal with new acquis and the revisiting of chapters
• The chapter on ``Other matters''