THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE NICE SUMMIT

Press Statement

11 December 2000

The Government of Malta welcomes the successful conclusion of the European Union's summit in Nice. The summit was expected to be one of great significance for the enlargement process, and its conclusions have amply borne these expectations out.

Malta welcomes the European Council's endorsement of the Commission's 'Enlargement Strategy Document', which, amongst its other recommendations, calls for a conclusion of the negotiations with the most advanced candidate countries during the course of 2002. Malta joins the European Council in auguring that this will allow these candidate countries to accede to the Union in time for their participation in the forthcoming elections to the European Parliament in June 2004.

The Government also warmly welcomes the successful conclusion of the Intergovernmental Conference on Institutional Reform, which it has always considered as being a necessary prerequisite for the European Union's enlargement. In this regard it is especially pleased that every state shall retain the right to appoint a Commissioner of its own nationality following enlargement. The conclusions also stipulate that any future departure from this principle will require the unanimous agreement of all member states at that time.

The Government also welcomes the agreement reached on enhanced co-operation, and on the extension of qualified majority voting in the Council whilst providing for the retention of unanimity in such sensitive areas as foreign policy, defence matters, taxation, social security and immigration and border controls. Furthermore the agreement reached also stipulates that a qualified majority must have the support of at least half of the member states, irrespective of their size.

In terms of the seats allocated to Malta in an enlarged Parliament, Malta notes as a positive development the increase of Malta's allocation of seats to five from the initial proposal of four, but reiterates its conviction that the minimum threshold for any member state should be six seats.