AFR Danish Prime Minister’s roundtrip prior to the meeting of the European Council in Copenhagen on 12 - 13 December

28.11.02

On Monday 2 December, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen will embark on his roundtrip of the other 14 EU Member States. The roundtrip is part of the preparations for the concluding meeting of the European Council during the Danish EU Presidency in Copenhagen on 12 – 13 December.

The schedule for the Prime Minister’s roundtrip is: Monday 2 December: - Lisbon – morning, talks with Portuguese Prime Minister José Manuel Barroso - Madrid – noon, talks with Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar - Vienna – evening, talks with Austrian Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel Tuesday 3 December: - Berlin – noon, talks with German Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder - Rome – evening, talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Wednesday 4 December: - Helsinki – afternoon, talks with Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen - Stockholm – evening, talks with Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson Thursday 5 December: - London – morning, talks with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair - Dublin – noon, talks with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern - Paris – evening, talks with French President Jacques Chirac Friday 6 December: - The Hague – morning, talks with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende - Luxembourg – noon, talks with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker - Brussels – afternoon, talks with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhof-stadt As Greece will assume the EU Presidency from Denmark at the turn of the year, Athens is the last stop on the Prime Minister’s roundtrip. The visit will take place on Tuesday 10 December.

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On the occasion of his roundtrip, the Prime Minister states: “At the concluding Summit of the Danish EU Presidency in Copenha-gen on 12 – 13 December, we shall complete the enlargement negotia-tions with up to ten countries.

During the week ahead, the Danish Presidency will present a final ne-gotiation package to each of the ten countries. In connection with my roundtrip, I will present an account of the content of the packages and discuss the course of events leading up to the Summit.

It is my firm conviction that the packages constitute the best possible combination of concessions to the candidate countries and due respect for the decisions taken by the EU Heads of State or Government at previous meetings in Berlin in 1999 and in Brussels in October this year.

The negotiations on the enlargement of the EU will have to be con-cluded on the basis of the Presidency negotiation packages.”

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A press conference will be held at the end of each visit of the roundtrip.

Contact information Further information: Jesper Fersløv Andersen, phone: +45 33 92 22 35/40 80 36 88