European Union leaders have reached a deal on how to finance enlargement of the EU The agreement follows two days of talks at a summit in Brussels where the contentious issue of farm subsidies and the controversial Common Agricultural Policy dominated much of the proceedings.
A potential battle between two of the EU's largest members, France and Germany, was expected to delay an agreement on funding But at a pre-summit meeting yesterday, French president Jacques Chirac, and German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, made a major breakthrough, agreeing to a cap on subsidies from 2007.
The deal paves the way for ten new candidate countries to join the EU from 2004. The final decision on the enlargement timetable will be made at a meeting in Copenhagen in December //www.fxcentre.com