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http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/bg/Qlatvia-france-enlarge.Rf9q_CST.html Latvian president seeks Chirac's sympathy for EU bid -Vike-Freiberga hopes to build on warm relations established when Chirac visited the chilly Baltics last year, when he praised her and her French language skills, which she acquired while growing up in French Morocco, after her family fled the advance of Soviet forces into Latvia in 1944. RIGA, Sept 29 (AFP) - Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga sets out on Monday to push her Baltic country's European Union and NATO membership bids, seeking President Jacques Chirac's sympathy during a three-day visit to France. Visiting Paris in the run-up to a decisive EU summit in late October, she hopes in particular to convince Chirac of the needs of her ex-Soviet republic's struggling farmers, who along with counterparts in Estonia and Lithuania fear they will be forced under current EU quota plans to slash production. "Our aim would be to share with French leaders our own concerns in accession negotiations," Vike-Freiberga's foreign policy advisor Andrejs Pildagovics told AFP. "The quota issue is the most sensitive issue in Latvia." As an EU heavyweight state, with a large agricultural sector, France is expected to be a key player when the bloc decides on its negotiating position with candidate countries on the agriculture issue at its October 24-25 summit in Brussels. Vike-Freiberga hopes to build on warm relations established when Chirac visited the chilly Baltics last year, when he praised her and her French language skills, which she acquired while growing up in French Morocco, after her family fled the advance of Soviet forces into Latvia in 1944. Latvia is among 10 mainly former communist-bloc countries hoping to finalise EU membership talks by the end of this year, in order to join in 2004, but the forthcoming talks on agriculture could prove to be a stumbling block. The EU's Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler said during a recent visit to the Baltic states that he had sympathy for the farmers' concerns and would see what he could do, but he could come up from resistance from EU countries. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency during the decisive period, warned last week the expansion could be "delayed by several years" if talks collapsed over agriculture. And the bloc's enlargement chief Guenter Verheugen specifically pointed the finger at France saying it should "take more seriously" the historic expansion, which will further unify Europe and erase Cold War divisions. Vike-Freiberga, who will also meet the French parliament, will also discuss with her French hosts membership of NATO, which Latvia expects to be invited to join when the military alliance's leaders meet in Prague in November. Chirac has already said he backs membership of the transatlantic alliance by the three Baltic states. Talks are also likely to broach a French agreement, expected to be ratified by parliament soon, to pay Latvia nearly four million euros (dollars) in compensation for the loss of its pre-World War II embassy building in Proni Street, in Paris's 17th district. The building was taken over by the Soviet Union after the war and now houses Russian diplomatic premises. Vike-Freiberga will also push for official recognition by the Paris-based United Nations Scientific, Cultural and Educational Organization (UNESCO) of the Baltic states' song and dance traditions, which received world wide attention during what became known as the singing revolution against Soviet rule in 1990 to 1991. The three Baltic states finally broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991. >From Paris Vike-Freiberga takes her campaign to Brussels on October 3, where she is scheduled to meet European Commission President Romano Prodi, the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Enlargement Commissioner Verheugen. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
