EU: European Union foreign ministers have expressed confidence that 10 new member-states will be invited to join the EU this week. But they remain divided on how to pay for the biggest enlargement in the EU's history.
The Danish Foreign Minister, Mr Per Stig Moeller, sounded upbeat at the end of a two-day meeting he chaired in Brussels.
"It is my firm expectation that the European Council will approve the Presidency package in Copenhagen and that enlargement can proceed on Friday," he said.
Denmark, which holds the EU Presidency, has proposed a package that adds €2.4 billion to the €39 billion agreed by EU leaders two months ago.
Most candidate countries have accepted the deal in principle, but Poland, the largest and most important of the applicants, is holding out for more.
Mr Moeller insisted, however, that the EU had reached the limit of its generosity. "There is no room for manoeuvre. We can't be any more helpful to anyone where money is concerned. The purse is in the pocket. It will not be coming out any more," he said.
Earlier, the Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, appeared to back a call by some central European leaders for the EU to make a more generous offer. He pointed out that there was still some leeway for the Union to offer more without breaching a budget limit agreed in Berlin in 1999.
"I think that if we spend all the money, it will not be a bad deal," he said.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said Ireland agreed with the Presidency that there must be a limit on how much the EU can offer. Ireland would approve the financial package on condition that it did not involve reopening the deal on farm subsidies agreed in Brussels in October.
So far three candidates, Cyprus, Slovakia and Estonia, have provisionally concluded the negotiations. Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania are close to a deal, while the Czech Republic and Hungary are still hoping for more concessions on agriculture.
But the EU is some way from reaching an accord with Poland, the biggest candidate, and to a lesser extent with Malta, which wants an exemption from VAT on food and medicine. Poland wants bigger agricultural production quotas, higher subsidies for its farmers and more money to ease its accession in 2004.
