The European Council of Brussels

The article sums up the main results of the December 2003 European Council in Brussels.

The results of the last European Council, in Brussels (12.12.2003), were overshadowed by the failure of the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) to agree on the “draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe”. Nevertheless, these results are significant in at least three areas:

The Council approved the “European Action for Growth”, which includes three issues important enough to be underlined:

• Action will be directed towards two main fields: first the Trans-European Networks (TEN) in the sector of energy, telecommunications and transport, and secondly R&D and innovation.
• A list of 46 programmes with an “early start” was approved. This list still remains open to other projects which could, in particular, be proposed by the Accession countries, which feel they are not well served by the current list.
• The use of private financing for these projects is the cornerstone of this “Action for Growth” plan. The European Investment Bank will put in place financial instruments in order to leverage private capital. Furthermore, in the case of the TEN, the amount of EU financing is permitted to be increased from 10% to 20% of the projects’ total cost.

The Council approved the report’s conclusions on the “task force on employment”*, chaired by the former Dutch Prime Minister, Mr. Kok. This question will be re-examined at the next Spring European Council in 2004.

The Council’s conclusions dedicated a specific chapter to enlargement. As regards:

• the 10 acceding countries, the Council noted “the Commission’s detemination to take, wherever necessary, all appropriate measures to safeguard the smooth functioning of all EU policies in the enlarged Union”.
• Romania and Bulgaria, the Council specified that the target date for their accession is now “January 2007, if they are ready”. In order to separate their accession from the discussions on the 2006-2013 financial framework, the Commission is invited to submit its financial proposals for these countries at the beginning of 2004, “so that the accession negotiations may be brought to a successful conclusion in 2004 on the basis of their own merits, and the Accession Treaty signed as soon as possible in 2005”.
• Turkey, the Council underlined that substantial progress has been achieved and confirmed that it will take the decision to open, or not to open, the accession negotiations in December 2004. Should a solution be found to the Cypriot question and Cyprus join the Union on May 1st 2004 as a reunified country, this “would greatly facilitate Turkey’s membership aspirations”.
• the Western Balkan countries, the Council reaffirmed that “the future of the Western Balkans lies in the European Union and that the speed of movement ahead lies in the hands of the countries of the region”.

If one sets aside the failure of the IGC, this Council might appear a “regular” one, with no really new decisions but showing a continuation of the European policies already adopted.

For more analyses of the EU’s enlargement process, see the

enlargement website of DREE.