MALTA SUCCESSFULLY CLOSES NEGOTIATIONS ON SEVEN OUT OF EIGHT CHAPTERS

MALTA SUCCESSFULLY CLOSES NEGOTIATIONS ON SEVEN OUT OF EIGHT CHAPTERS

The conference on Malta's accession to the European Union, met this morning at the level of negotiators in Brussels and agreed unanimously to recommend to Foreign Affairs Ministers that seven out of the eight chapters currently open for negotiations with Malta should be provisionally closed.

The chapters that are expected to be closed are

Industrial Policy,

Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs),

Science and Research,

Education and Training and

Telecommunications and Information Technologies

External Relations,

Common Foreign and Security Policy.

The only chapter that remains open is Culture and Audio-Visual Policy.

During this morning's meeting, the Chairman of Malta's Core Negotiating Group, Richard Cachia Caruana, expressed the satisfaction of the Government of Malta at the manner in which negotiations were proceeding and declared that Malta was prepared to open a considerable number of additional chapters under the French Presidency in the second half of this year. In particular, the meeting was informed that Malta was prepared to open negotiations by July on chapters concerning Competition, Statistics, Consumer Policy and Health Protection, Company Law, Customs Union, Taxation, Energy and Transport, among others.

During his speech, Mr Cachia Caruana also reiterated Malta's firm objective to be included in the first enlargement and called on the EU to define an effective date for enlargement. He also recalled Malta's views on the limited level of pre-accession assistance extended to Malta so far and asked the Accession Conference to look into this issue. [The text of Mr Cachia Caruana's speech is annexed to this Press Release].

The meeting was also addressed by the Portuguese Ambassador Jose Vasco Valente on behalf of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union and by Mr. Eneko Landaburu, Director-General for Enlargement, on behalf of the European Commission.

Both Ambassador VascoValente and Mr. Landaburu expressed satisfaction on the part of the EU at the rapid progress that Malta is making in the negotiations process. On behalf of the Presidency, Ambassador Vasco Valente confirmed the EU's determination to maintain the momentum of negotiations and to continue to apply the principle of differentiation which enables candidate countries to move forward according to their own pace.

Referring to Malta's considerable progress in closing seven of the eight chapters open for negotiations, Mr. Landaburu said that the Commission will now be working on the preparations for the work programme of the French Presidency during which other chapters are expected to be opened for negotiations with Malta.

In conclusion, Ambassador Vasco Valente, on behalf of the Presidency proposed that the meeting would recommend to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs that are due to meet in Luxembourg in June to close the said seven chapters. This proposal was unanimously adopted.

Mr. Cachia Caruana was accompanied during the meeting by Victor Camilleri, Malta's Ambassador to the European Union, Simon Busuttil, Head of the Malta-EU Information Centre, Ivan Fsadni, Co-ordinator in the EU Negotiations Secretariat, Tarcisio Zammit, Counsellor and other officials from the Maltese Embassy in Brussels.

A table of chapters that have been provisionally closed with all candidate countries is also attached to this press release.