PART VI
CONCLUSION
186. This IGC is vital in preparing the EU for
enlargement. It must be completed by the Nice European Council
in December to meet the timetable for enlargement. We therefore
support the principle that the agenda of the IGC should be limited
in order to give a realistic chance of completing the negotiations
this year. We note, however, that very little progress has been
made so far, with the negotiators merely repeating their initial
positions and no substantive discussions having taken place. This
is disappointing, but not entirely unexpected: in EU affairs,
serious negotiation usually starts only at the last possible moment.
We intend to return to the subject of the IGC later in the year,
when the negotiations have begun in earnest.
187. Meanwhile, the House of Commons has not yet
debated the IGC, although the Leader of the House has on several
occasions been asked at Business Questions to arrange such a debate.
Important documents which are clearly key to a debate on the IGC,
chief among them the Commission's Opinion, have been deposited
for scrutiny[254].
We now recommend them for debate on the Floor of the House, with
this Report tagged to the debate.
254 European Commission Opinion on Adapting the
institutions to make a success of enlargement (COM(00) 34);
Additional Commission contribution to the Inter-Governmental Conference
on institutional reform: reform of the Community Courts
(COM(00) 109); and Supplementary contribution of the Commission
to the Inter-Governmental Conference on institutional reform:
Qualified majority voting for single market aspects in the
taxation and social security fields (COM(00) 114). Back
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