WRITTEN QUESTION E-1991/01

by Hans Modrow (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(6 July 2001)

Subject: EU enlargement

Despite major efforts, not least by yourselves, the process of enlargement of the Union through the accession of Central and Eastern European countries is proving considerably more complicated than previously anticipated.

Can the Commission answer the following:

1. How is it intended that the development of the Euroregions between the Member States and the applicant countries should proceed in future and be expanded in partnership? Is the Commission preparing a special programme of assistance?

2. What is the Commission's intended approach with regard to transitional periods?

3. What is being done to ensure that the essential economic structural change proceeds without prejudice to the EU's quota policy while avoiding the deindustrialisation of whole regions, such as is already observable in Northern Moravia? Will the new Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany remain an Objective 1 region, or are changes to the subsidy criteria proposed, in favour of the CEECs?

4. What will the Commission do to counter the growing rejection of EU membership in some quarters in the CEECs by means of greater transparency about the accession negotiations and more precise information about the consequences of membership of the EU?

5. How will agricultural cooperative production companies in the applicant countries be preserved and supported under the CAP?

6. What is the Commission's view of the demand by German politicians for repeal of the so-called Benes Decrees, which are based on the internationally binding Potsdam Agreement, as a precondition for the Czech Republic's accession to the EU?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(2 October 2001)

1. The practice of creating Euroregions relies wholly on the initiative of the partners concerned. The Commission is not planning a special programme of assistance for the Euroregions as organisations. However, already Euroregions including frontier regions between the EU and the candidate countries are actively involved in implementing cross-border cooperation programmes supported financially by the Community via Interreg and Phare CBC. The programmes are based on the partnership principle, involving common structures and programming documents, and provide for cooperation to continue beyond accession. In addition, on 21 July 2001 the Commission adopted a special project aimed at developing Community initiatives for regions bordering the candidate countries(1).

2. The Commission approach to transitional periods was set out in the enlargement strategy paper adopted in November 2000(2). The transitional measures will be limited in time and scope. They must not involve changes to EU rules or policies, or hamper their smooth operation, or lead to serious distortions of competition. There are three categories of transitional measures: acceptable, negotiable and unacceptable measures.

3. Industrial restructuring in the candidate countries is a matter for the countries themselves. Community pre-accession assistance totalling some 3,2 billion a year (for Phare, Ispa and Sapard) is helping the countries concerned to adopt and implement Community legislation, in industry as well. The Phare programme already devotes a substantial proportion (one-third) of its budget to economic and social cohesion. As part of the priority given to institution building, it contributes to developing the machinery which will be needed for future structural fund intervention following accession. It also cofinances investment aimed at ensuring support for economic and social cohesion in the candidate countries.

Note also that there are no quotas for exports of industrial products from the candidate countries to the Community.

After accession, the Structural Funds could support the reconversion process in industrial regions in the candidate countries and contribute in this way to economic and social cohesion. The new Länder in Germany will keep their Objective 1 status at least until 2006, the end of the current programme period. The selection criteria for Objective 1 for the period after 2006 have not yet been decided; they will have to be approved by the current and new Member States. Forecasts on the status of the current Objective 1 regions in Germany after 2006 are therefore not possible at the moment.

4. The Commission has adopted a communication strategy to be implemented in the candidate countries and the Member States in a decentralised manner. It is especially important for it to be closely and continuously coordinated with the activities of governments, parliaments and various other groups in society.

5. The Sapard programmes may support producer groups until the candidate countries join the EU. The programmes approved for Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia provide for specific assistance for such groups. In addition, several programmes allow more generous access to other measures for producer associations.

Neither the common agricultural policy (CAP) policy on prices and markets or its rural development policy is geared to supporting particular social organisations. On the other hand, agricultural cooperatives can obtain support for producers' associations under several common organisations of the market, and support for improving the processing or marketing of agricultural products under Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 of 17 May 1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)(3).

6. The Benes Decrees were adopted and implemented before the Community was founded and before the Treaty of Rome entered into force. When they accede, the candidate countries will have to fulfil the criteria set out by the Copenhagen European Council, in particular the political criterion that requires them to have stable institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and respect for and the protection of minorities.

(1) COM(2001) 437 final.

(2) COM(2000) 700 final.

(3) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.