Meeting in Cyprus of the chief negotiators of the six applicant countries (26-27/3/1999)

The chief negotiators of the six applicant countries for EU accession met in the coastal town of Limassol, Cyprus, on 26 and 27 March to discuss the progress each country has made towards accession and in the analytical examination or «screening» of the acquis communautaire.

This is the sixth meeting between the five candidate countries from Central and Eastern Europe and Cyprus which will be included in the next wave of enlargement of the European Union.

Discussions focussed on economic issues such as the free movement of capital and goods, protection of competition and harmonisation of the banking sector. They also concentrated on the economic aspects of Agenda 2000 and the relations of the applicant countries with the European Economic Area.

The negotiators noted the EU member-states' determination to promote the accession process. In this context they acknowledged the need for an overall effort to increase the tempo of the accession negotiations and decided to submit position papers on four further chapters by the end of May, on an additional four chapters by the end of June and on the remaining chapters by the end of November this year. It is expected that by the end of the Portuguese presidency in the first half of 2000 accession negotiations will have made progress in all chapters.

The next meeting of the six will be held in Tallinn, Estonia, on a date to be fixed later.