Portugal presidency favors expansion

TALLINN - Eastern expansion and preparing for new members are two of
the top priorities of the European Union during Portugal's six month
presidency of the 15-nation bloc, the Portuguese ambassador to
Estonia said.

"There are four or five priorities," Manuel Moriera de Andrade said
at a press conference on Jan. 13. "The priority of priorities,
though, will be enlargement. We will work hard in enlargement
matters."

Portugal will open talks with 12 candidate countries on Feb. 14, the
ambassador said. The goal during the Portuguese presidency is to open
all chapters of enlargement negotiations, then it is up to the
aspiring countries to complete membership requirements. The EU would
also like to close some of the chapters already opened by the
so-called "first-tier" countries - Estonia, the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Cyprus - that received membership
invitations in 1998.

So far, the EU has opened 23 of the total of 31 chapters of entry
negotiations with Estonia, while the Baltic country has submitted its
position papers on all chapters and completed negotiations on eight
of them.Before a chapter can be closed, the aspiring EU country must
demonstrate it has successfully implemented the laws of the chapter.

Andrade stressed that despite the appearance of two groups of
candidate countries, every candidate will be evaluated on its own
merits. However, he did say that it was "not probably normal" if one
of the recent invitees became ready before a country which had been
in negotiations already for one year.

"There are no first wave or second wave countries. They are evaluated
on their own merits and objectively appreciated individually," he
said.

Before membership can be extended to the Central and Eastern European
countries plus Cyprus, Malta and eventually Turkey, the EU must
prepare itself to receive new members by completing its own internal
reforms and organizing the inter-governmental conference, which will
make preparations for accepting new members, the ambassador said.

"We would like to be prepared to receive new members from 2002
onward," Andrade said.

Estonia has set a goal of being ready to join the EU by Jan. 1, 2003.

The Portuguese presidency which will end in July when France takes
over - will also concentrate on EU economic policy, "preparing Europe
for a global world" and the continent's security policy.

Portugal has no permanent diplomatic representation in Estonia
therefore residing French Ambassador Jean-Jacques Subrenat will
represent Portugal here in its capacity as EU president.