§ Mr. BradshawTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about the progress of EU accession negotiations. [143899]
§ Mr. VazNegotiations are progressing well. With all negotiating sessions of the French Presidency complete, the position in negotiations is as follows
The countries which opened negotiations in 1998 (the so-called Luxembourg Six) have all opened 29 out of 31 chapters of the acquis and have provisionally closed (ie no further negotiations required at this stage) between 13 and 17 chapters. (Cyprus: 17; Estonia: 16; Slovenia: 14; Hungary: 14; Poland: 13; Czech: 13).The countries which opened negotiations in 2000 (the so-called Helsinki Six) have opened between nine and 16 chapters and closed between six and 12. (Malta: opened 16, provisionally closed 12; Slovakia: 16/10; Lativia: 16/9; Bulgaria: 11/8; Lithuania: 16/17; Romania: 9/6).We look forward to further progress under the Swedish Presidency in the first half of 2001.
I should also take this opportunity to correct the inadvertent error I made in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office oral questions on 12 December 2000, Official Report, column 471.