-Caveat Lector- Gunfire As Riots Shake EU Enlargement Summit <http://www.iwon.com/home/news/news_article/0,11746,79306|top|06-15-2001::18:07|reuters,00.html> June 15, 2001 By Paul Taylor GOTHENBURG, Sweden (Reuters) - Anarchist riots raged around a European Union summit on Friday, overwhelming Swedish police and forcing EU leaders to abandon their hotels and drop a planned gala dinner. At least two people were shot and wounded and more than 50 people were treated for injuries, hospital spokesman said. Police said an officer had opened fire in self-defense, injuring one demonstrator. Casualty reports were confused. As fighting continued late into the night, police broadcast appeals to local residents in Sweden's second city to stay home. At a late-night news conference, Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom denied police had lost control but said the violence by hundreds of anarchists was the most difficult challenge Sweden's security forces had ever faced. "Many of the rioters came from other countries with the intention of disrupting the summit," he said. Barricaded in a heavily guarded conference center, the 15 EU leaders condemned the anti-capitalist riots, which have dogged international gatherings since the 1999 World Trade Organization conference in Seattle. They agreed that the process of enlarging the EU into eastern Europe must go ahead despite Ireland's shock rejection of the Nice Treaty on EU reform last week. Police said they made several hundred arrests, including 110 suspected militants who docked on a ferry from Denmark and were immediately detained. Plumes of smoke rose over the fashionable Kungsports Avenyn as masked anarchists methodically vandalized shop windows, piled tables and chairs from sidewalk cafes into makeshift barricades and set them ablaze. Some stores were looted. Protesters hurled paving-stones and firecrackers at police, who responded with baton charges. Mounted police were dragged from their horses and at least nine policemen were injured. FIGHTING ESCALATED The fighting was far worse than clashes on Thursday in which 455 people were detained while President Bush was meeting the EU leaders. Bush flew to Poland on Friday morning. The violence forced the Swedish hosts to switch Friday's summit dinner on security grounds from Gothenburg's botanical gardens to the fortress-like congress center, ringed by a six-foot high double steel fence and freight containers. Five summit delegations were forced to move out of a central hotel because police said they could not guarantee their safety. The mayhem overshadowed the day's EU business, which centered on the bloc's ambitious plans to admit up to 12 ex-communist and Mediterranean countries over the next few years. "There is a consensus...to send a signal to the applicant countries that we want to go ahead with the enlargement process," Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said after chairing the first day of the summit. "Despite the Irish vote, there will be a signal that the enlargement process is irreversible," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told reporters. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern told the leaders his country needed an "extended period of reflection" after last week's stunning 54-46 percent defeat of the treaty negotiated in December to reform EU institutions to cope with new members. He stressed that Ireland's "no" should not be seen as a vote against enlargement. Diplomats said they expected the Irish to vote again, probably next year after a cooling-off period, and some EU statement respecting Ireland's neutrality in the common European foreign and security policy. TIMETABLE FOR ENLARGEMENT? Diplomats said most of the 15 EU states wanted to set a more precise timetable for admitting the first eastern candidates but Germany and France were holding out against fixing dates. Persson said he hoped the leaders would agree on a formula that would satisfy leaders of 12 candidate countries when they meet for lunch on Saturday. Reflecting the majority view, Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok said: "We should declare our will to close the negotiations with the most advanced candidates in 2002 and thereby encourage them to hasten reforms." But diplomats quoted Schroeder as saying that fixing dates would send the wrong signal. A senior EU diplomat said the Germans argued that setting an early target date could make it harder for Poland to qualify in the first group, a key German goal, and leave insufficient time to reform agricultural policy. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the leaders agreed that those applicants who had not completed ratification by 2004 could still take part in European Parliament elections that year. Their MEPs would take their seats upon accession. In a rare mood of contrition, some leaders said they regretted that the bloc's Ecofin council had censured Ireland's budget as inflationary earlier this year. Others argued it had been premature to launch a fresh debate on the future of Europe before the treaty negotiated last December was even ratified. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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