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EU candidate countries that are members of the so-called Visegrad Four have agreed to stand united in the final negotiations with the EU at its summit to take place next week in Copenhagen. The summit will be decisive for EU expansion and the candidates still hope to achieve more favourable conditions regarding agricultural subsidies, transitional periods, and budgetary and financial issues. Representatives of the Visegrad Group countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, met on Friday and Saturday to overcome a tension caused by the Poles last week who said they would prefer cash payments from EU budget in the first three years after entry to direct support for farming.

The presidency of the European Union has warned candidate countries that they risk setting back their entry date by years if they try to demand better accession terms at next week's Copenhagen summit. The Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after a meeting with the French President Jacques Chirak in Paris that the EU had made ultimate concessions in its last offer and candidates should not demand the impossible. Three of the candidates -Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary- are still pushing for a better deal in accession talks and the last minute concessions proposed by Denmark still have to be approved by the governments of the other 14 member states. The Danish Prime Minister expressed confidence that the Copenhagen summit would be a historic success, despite the fact that some of the candidates are not entirely happy with the entry terms and that some EU member states feel that the Danish presidency has been too generous with its final offer.

Yesterday, the streets of Prague were filled with farmers who came to tell the government exactly what they thought of the current state of negotiations with the European Union over farming subsidies, and the protestors were clearly angry.

An estimated 10,000 farmers have staged an angry demonstration in Prague against the European Union's plans to provide relatively low agricultural subsidies to new member countries. On Wednesday morning farmers pelted the Agriculture Ministry with eggs, beets, potatoes and tomatoes, breaking around two dozen windows. They also set fire to bales of straw and blocked the main gate to the ministry with piles of manure. No arrests were made. Agriculture Minister Jaroslav Palas said the demonstration was justified, but condemned the damage caused. The protest came just days before the Czech government was due to conclude an agriculture agreement as part of accession talks with the EU. The union plans to phase in farm subsidies in the Czech Republic and other candidate countries over several years, once they join in 2004.

The head of the European Commission's delegation to Prague, Ramiro Cibrian, has said new EU members can expect a rise in growth rates after they join the EU. Speaking at an economic forum in Prague, Mr Cibrian said economic growth could exceed 3 percent in the first years after accession, expected in 2004. Analysts expect economic growth in the Czech Republic to reach 2.5 per cent by the end of this year.

The European Union's Commissioner for Enlargement, Guenter Verheugen, has praised the settling of the dispute between the Czech Republic and Austria over the post-war Benes decrees. Addressing a lecture in Vienna on Tuesday, Mr Verheugen was quoted as saying the problem had now disappeared. The Benes decrees sanctioned the expulsion of around three million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. The expulsion has been the source of tension with Austria in recent years, with some expellees calling for an apology and restitution of property. The two countries recently made progress towards settling the dispute.

The Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla is to attend a meeting of the Visegrad group in the Hungarian capital Budapest over the weekend. The heads of government of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic are expected to focus largely on the final stage of accession talks with the European Union. The Visegrad group countries have been negotiating the conditions for entry separately, but on occasion they coordinate their stands in order to bolster their positions. This weekend they are expected to thrash out Denmark's offer of last minute concessions regarding financing.

A new opinion poll released on Wednesday shows that more than 60 percent of the Czech public support their country's entry to the European Union and are satisfied with NATO membership. The poll, carried out by the STEM agency in November, found that 64 percent of Czechs would vote for joining the EU in a referendum, while 68 percent supported NATO membership. The Czech Republic was admitted to NATO in March 1999, together with Poland and Hungary, and is among the 10 leading candidates for EU membership.

The Czech Republic has welcomed an offer of financial concessions to European Union candidates. The country's chief negotiator for EU entry, Pavel Telicka, described the offer as an improvement on previous proposals. However he added that his country would continue to fight for better entry terms before December's EU summit in Copenhagen. Denmark, which currently holds the revolving presidency of the EU, unveiled a plan on Monday to improve financial terms of accession for ten candidates expected to join in mid 2004. The plan was heavily criticised by several EU members including Germany.

Denmark, the country which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has taken a bold step to try and bring accession talks with the 10 candidate countries to a successful conclusion in time for the December 12th Copenhagen summit. Despite opposition from other EU members, Denmark has urged the union to make a series of concessions which would improve cash flow in the newcomer countries, remove the last stumbling blocks in accession talks and allow the Copenhagen summit to wrap up entry talks.