Doc. 8081

21 April 1998

Enlargement of the European Union

Reply to Recommendation 1347 (1997)

from the Committee of Ministers

adopted on 16 April 1998 at the 628^th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies

1.       The Committee of Ministers has noted with great interest the proposals contained in Recommendation 1347 (1997) of the Parliamentary Assembly on enlargement of the European Union, which has been brought to the attention of both the Council of the European Union and the European Commission;

2.       The European Council, meeting in Luxembourg on 12 and 13 December 1997, has taken the decisions necessary to launch the enlargement process of the European Union:

-       launching the accession process on 30 March 1998 by a meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the fifteen member states of the European Union, the ten Central and East European applicant states and Cyprus;

-       the accession process will comprise three main elements: (i) the framework; (ii) the enhanced pre-accession strategy; (iii) the Commission opinions and accession negotiations;

-       at the same time the preparation of negotiations with Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria will be speeded up in particular through an analytical examination of the Union acquis;

-       from the end of 1998, the Commission will make regular reports to the Council, together with any necessary recommendations for opening bilateral intergovernmental conferences, reviewing the progress of each Central and East European applicant State towards accession. The Commission’s reports will serve as a basis for taking, in the Council context, the necessary decisions on the conduct of the accession negotiations or their extension to other applicants;

-       bilateral intergovernmental conferences convened in the spring of 1998 to begin negotiations with Cyprus, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia on the conditions for their entry into the European Union and the ensuing Treaty adjustments;

-       a European Conference will bring together the member states of the European Union and the European states aspiring to accede to it and which will be a multilateral forum for political consultation;

3.       Like the Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee of Ministers is convinced that membership of the Council of Europe and ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights, together with other important standard-setting and control instruments of the Council of Europe, are of significant relevance for the fulfilment of some of the requirements for accession to the European Union. This should be taken into consideration in the accession procedure;

4.       As for the instruments for consultation on accession-related issues (see paragraph 15 .iii of the Recommendation), the Committee of Ministers notes:

a.       that the possibility for dialogue at the level of Heads of State and Government in the context of the European Conference is provided for in the conclusions of the Luxembourg meeting;

b.       that the Assembly remains one of the most important places where all the members of the European Union, all the applicants as well as other European states, are represented at parliamentary level. On 29 January 1998 Mr Van den Broek, the member of the European Commission directly responsible for the enlargement process as well as for relations with the Council of Europe, confirmed before the Parliamentary Assembly that “the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly are the valued partners of the European Union”. He added that “the enlargement of the Council of Europe to include countries from all parts of our continent has greatly strengthened its representativeness and its capacity to address the concerns of all our citizens”;

c.       that the exchanges of views on EU enlargement matters in the Committee of Ministers between the representatives of the EU countries and those invited to the EU enlargement process should be continued;

d.       that the Commission has taken note in Agenda 2000 of Council of Europe work in the field of monitoring procedures, particularly on human rights, the rule of law and democratic issues, including the respective procedure of the Assembly. All the member states of the European Union take part with the other Council of Europe member states in the monitoring procedure. The Commission will follow closely the situation in the applicant countries and will no doubt be willing to continue to draw on Council of Europe expertise in the relevant field;

e.       that the Council of Europe has a wide range of programmes and activities aimed at the strengthening of democratic institutions, the rule of law and the protection of human rights and the rights of minorities, some of which are in close co-operation with the European Commission. The Commission participates in Council of Europe steering committees as well as in the Committee of Ministers at ministerial and at Deputies’ level, and consultations at service level are being held regularly