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EU clears final expansion hurdle
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Union leaders have agreed a deal on how to finance the enlargement of the bloc from 15 to 25 members. They reached agreement on Friday, at the end of a two-day summit in Brussels. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, told reporters: "We have an agreement. "This has been a very successful summit. It represents a major step forward towards the historic decision on enlargement." It clears the way for final negotiations, due to be held in December, with the 10 candidates who expect to be made EU members in 2004, diplomats said. The 10 are Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovakia and Slovenia. The deal paves the way for Rasmussen to brief leaders of the candidate nations on the details of the agreement, in Copenhagen, on Monday. He said he was confident they would accept it. Rasmussen said the breakthrough came after a compromise over EU farm spending. Leaders agreed to let the EU's farm budget -- which stands at about $39 billion -- will rise to $44.4 billion by 2006. It will then be frozen until 2013 except for annual increases of one percent to offset the effect of inflation. The agreement is based on a Franco-German compromise on farm spending. (Story)
It had been feared that farming subsidies would pose the biggest obstacle to an agreement, although concern remains on how other big contributors to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), such as Sweden and the UK, will react. British Prime Minister Tony Blair had wanted a more radical restructuring of CAP, a policy that eats more than half of the EU's £60 billion-a-year budget. Blair said: "We understand the concerns that countries have about protecting their industry, but in the end the world is only moving in one direction and that is liberalisation." Many of the applicant countries will hold referendums in 2003 on whether or not voters back EU entry. In addition to the 10 candidate state, Romania and Bulgaria may enter in 2007, but Turkey's hopes were dashed when the EU said it still had work to do on improving its human rights record.
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