The European Council confirms the importance of the enlargement process launched in Luxembourg in December 1997 for the stability and prosperity for the entire European continent. An efficient and credible enlargement process must be sustained.

The European Council reaffirms the inclusive nature of the accession process, which now comprises 13 candidate States within a single framework. The candidate States are participating in the accession process on an equal footing. They must share the values and objectives of the European Union as set out in the Treaties. In this respect the European Council stresses the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with the United Nations Charter and urges candidate States to make every effort to resolve any outstanding border disputes and other related issues. Failing this they should within a reasonable time bring the dispute to the International Court of Justice. The European

Council will review the situation relating to any outstanding disputes, in particular concerning the repercussions on the accession process and in order to promote their settlement through the International Court of Justice, at the latest by the end of 2004.

Moreover, the European Council recalls that compliance with the political criteria laid down at the Copenhagen European Council is a prerequisite for the opening of accession negotiations and that compliance with all the Copenhagen criteria is the basis for accession to the Union.

The Union has made a firm political commitment to make every effort to complete the Intergovernmental Conference on institutional reform by December 2000, to be followed by ratification. After ratification of the results of that Conference the Union should be in a position to welcome new Member States from the end of 2002 as soon as they have demonstrated their ability to assume the obligations of membership and once the negotiating process has been successfully completed.

The Commission has made a new detailed assessment of progress in the candidate States. This assessment shows progress towards fulfilling the accession criteria. At the same time, given that difficulties remain in certain sectors, candidate States are encouraged to continue and step up their efforts to comply with the accession criteria. It emerges that some candidates will not be in a position to meet all the Copenhagen criteria in the medium term.

The Commission's intention is to report in early 2000 to the Council on progress by certain candidate States on fulfilling the Copenhagen economic criteria. The next regular progress reports will be presented in good time before the European Council in December 2000.

The European Council recalls the importance of high standards of nuclear safety in Central and Eastern Europe. It calls on the Council to consider how to address the issue of nuclear safety in the framework of the enlargement process in accordance with the relevant Council conclusions.

The European Council notes with satisfaction the substantive work undertaken and progress which has been achieved in accession negotiations with Cyprus, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.

(a) The European Council welcomes the launch of the talks aiming at a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem on 3 December in New York and expresses its strong support for the UN Secretary-General's efforts to bring the process to a successful conclusion.

(b) The European Council underlines that a political settlement will facilitate the accession of Cyprus to the European Union. If no settlement has been reached by the completion of accession negotiations, the Council's decision on accession will be made without the above being a precondition. In this the Council will take account of all relevant factors.

Determined to lend a positive contribution to security and stability on the European continent and in the light of recent developments as well as the Commission's reports, the European Council has decided to convene bilateral intergovernmental conferences in February 2000 to begin negotiations with Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Malta on the conditions for their entry into the Union and the ensuing Treaty adjustments.

In the negotiations, each candidate State will be judged on its own merits. This principle will apply both to opening of the various negotiating chapters and to the conduct of the negotiations. In order to maintain momentum in the negotiations, cumbersome procedures should be avoided. Candidate States which have now been brought into the negotiating process will have the possibility to catch up within a reasonable period of time with those already in negotiations if they have made sufficient progress in their preparations. Progress in negotiations must go hand in hand with progress in incorporating the acquis into legislation and actually implementing and enforcing it.

The European Council welcomes recent positive developments in Turkey as noted in the Commission's progress report, as well as its intention to continue its reforms towards complying with the Copenhagen criteria. Turkey is a candidate State destined to join the Union on the basis of the same criteria as applied to the other candidate States. Building on the existing European strategy, Turkey, like other candidate States, will benefit from a pre-accession strategy to stimulate and support its reforms. This will include enhanced political dialogue, with emphasis on progressing towards fulfilling the political criteria for accession with particular reference to the issue of human rights, as well as on the issues referred to in paragraphs 4 and 9(a). Turkey will also have the opportunity to participate in Community programmes and agencies and in meetings between candidate States and the Union in the context of the accession process. An accession partnership will be drawn up on the basis of previous European Council conclusions while containing priorities on which accession preparations must concentrate in the light of the political and economic criteria and the obligations of a Member State, combined with a national programme for the adoption of the acquis. Appropriate monitoring mechanisms will be established. With a view to intensifying the harmonisation of Turkey's legislation and practice with the acquis, the Commission is invited to prepare a process of analytical examination of the acquis. The European Council asks the Commission to present a single framework for coordinating all sources of European Union financial assistance for pre-accession.

The future of the European Conference will be reviewed in the light of the evolving situation and the decisions on the accession process taken at Helsinki. The forthcoming French Presidency has announced its intention to convene a meeting of the conference in the second half of 2000.

The European Council welcomes the Presidency's report on the issues raised in relation to the Intergovernmental Conference and setting out the main options the Conference will be confronted with.

Appropriate steps will be taken to enable the Intergovernmental Conference to be officially convened in early February. The Conference should complete its work and agree the necessary amendments to the Treaties by December 2000.

Following the Cologne Conclusions and in the light of the Presidency's report, the Conference will examine the size and composition of the Commission, the weighting of votes in the Council and the possible extension of qualified majority voting in the Council, as well as other necessary amendments to the Treaties arising as regards the European institutions in connection with the above issues and in implementing the Treaty of Amsterdam. The incoming Presidency will report to the European Council on progress made in the Conference and may propose additional issues to be taken on the agenda of the Conference.

Ministers who are members of the General Affairs Council will have overall political responsibility for the Conference. Preparatory work shall be carried out by a Group composed of a representative of each Member State's Government. The representative of the Commission shall participate at the political and preparatory level. The General Secretariat of the Council will provide secretariat support for the Conference.

The European Parliament will be closely associated and involved in the work of the Conference. Meetings of the preparatory Group may be attended by two observers from the European Parliament. Each session of the Conference at ministerial level will be preceded by an exchange of views with the President of the European Parliament, assisted by two representatives of the European Parliament. Meetings at the level of Heads of State or Government dealing with the IGC will be preceded by an exchange of views with the President of the European Parliament.

The Presidency will take the necessary steps to ensure that candidate States are regularly briefed within existing fora on the progress of discussions and have the opportunity to put their points of view on matters under discussion. Information will also be given to the European Economic Area.

Substantial changes in the Council's working methods are necessary and must be gradually introduced starting now so that by the time of enlargement, the Council can smoothly accommodate a larger membership. The European Council approves the operational recommendations attached in Annex III. The Council, the Presidency and the Secretary-General/High Representative will be responsible for ensuring that these recommendations are observed and enforced in practice, without calling into question arrangements and programming already made by the incoming Presidency.

The European Council recalls its commitment in support of reforming the Commission's administration, especially financial and personnel management, in order to enhance efficiency, transparency and accountability and thus ensure the highest standards of public administration.

The Commission will present a comprehensive programme of administrative reforms in early 2000. The European Council calls for rapid implementation of these administrative reforms.

Transparency of the European institutions is an important element in bringing the Union closer to its citizens and improving efficiency. Progress has been achieved during the Finnish Presidency, especially in the area of access to documents and rapid communication using modern information technologies. The European Council welcomes the Commission's intention to table in January 2000 the proposal on general principles governing the right of access to European

Parliament, Council and Commission documents.

The European Council welcomes the Commission's report entitled "Better law-making" which confirms the priority attached to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality and to full application of the relevant Treaty Protocol.

The establishment of the Union's Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) marks an important new step in the fight against fraud. The Commission will present by June 2000 a communication with a view to further developing a comprehensive strategy for the protection of the financial interests of the Community.

* * * * *

Reforming the functioning of the Council is an important component of the broader institutional reform process to prepare the Union for enlargement. The scale of the coming enlargements coupled with the wider scope of the Union's action could well slow the Council down, and ultimately even paralyse it. That risk is already perceptible now and represents a threat to the smooth operation of the Union, given the Council's central role in Union decision-making. Hence the need for a comprehensive review of the Council's working methods, as highlighted in the report submitted by the Secretary-General in March 1999(1).

The Council must have an overview of all Union policies. For it to do so, there has to be at the heart of the system a single chain of coordination capable of ensuring that Union action is consistent with the will of its political leaders. This chain of command starts in the Member States themselves with effective interdepartmental coordination and arbitration, and extends through COREPER, the General Affairs Council to the European Council. The Council's ability to meet the challenges ahead largely depends on strengthening the effectiveness of this channel the backbone of the system. Action to preserve the Council's ability to act decisively therefore needs to be taken at all levels.

The European Council must remain an effective forum for policy leadership in providing necessary impetus for the Union's development and defining general political guidelines. It must preserve the flexible way in which it is prepared at present, the restricted format of its meetings and the practical impact of the Presidency conclusions.

The General Affairs Council's central responsibility for general horizontal issues, including overall policy coordination, means that it will have to manage an increasingly complex external and internal agenda, dealing with major multidisciplinary and interpillar dossiers. Effectively handling all aspects of its work by better agenda management and suitable Member State representation is essential if the General Affairs Council is to continue to play its role in ensuring overall coordination and policy consistency, and in preparing European Council meetings.

Given the diversification of the Union's activities and broadening of the areas covered by the Treaties, it is important to prevent fragmentation of the Union's activities and decision-making by limiting the number of Council formations, and by avoiding artificial activities to fill up agendas. This will help focus the Union's action and improve overall policy coordination and consistency by the Council's preparatory bodies.

Efficient legislative practices must be followed. This means ensuring that the correct legislative instruments are used, that texts are drafted in a high quality and legally watertight manner, that the codecision procedure, given its increasing application, operates smoothly and effectively and that the Council's legislative work is more transparent and open to public scrutiny.

While internal coordination in the Member States is, and must remain, the exclusive preserve of each government, effective coordination has a direct bearing on the functioning and coherence of the Council. Therefore Member States have a common and genuine interest in endeavouring to ensure that their internal organisation allows the Council to deliberate more effectively.

Effective Council decision-making requires preparatory work to be undertaken as rationally and cost-effectively as possible while ensuring overall policy consistency. This implies planning all programmable activities, a clear definition of the role of COREPER and Council Working Parties, and improved working methods designed to ensure optimum use of infrastructure and resources. Already now, and all the more so in an enlarged Union, full use must be made of the limited time available in meetings. Without suitable preparation upstream and greater discipline in plenary debates at all levels, discussions risk becoming completely ineffective. At meetings, delegations should be able to react and negotiate on clear options, drafted solutions to known difficulties or clearly identified problems.

Therefore it is of the utmost importance that clear and well-structured papers are provided. The Presidency, as part of its particular responsibilities for managing and conducting discussions, should have the means to ensure suitable working methods.

The Presidency must retain overall political responsibility for managing Council business. Over the years its burden has increased substantially, and will continue to do so as the Union enlarges.

Optimum use must therefore be made of the various forms of support available, such as the incoming Presidency, the Troika and the General Secretariat, in order to ease the Presidency's workload. The increasing number of Council members, along with the increase in the Presidency's responsibilities, will also require greater and more upfront support for the Council and the Presidency from the General Secretariat.

Finally, practical issues such as the layout of rooms, translation, interpretation and document production are crucial to the smooth operation of the Council. New imaginative and pragmatic solutions are needed on these issues, while respecting basic principles, if the Council is to continue to operate effectively.

The following operational recommendations will, for the most part, be implemented as soon as possible. Some will require more detailed work before being implemented over the medium-term in connection with enlargement. They are designed to meet the Cologne European Council's call for specific proposals to be made for improving the operation of the Council with a view to enlargement.

It is imperative that these recommendations are applied using effective means of enforcement through the Council's rules of procedure(2) and are coupled with the practical measures already being implemented by the Presidency and the Secretary-General, which must be consolidated over the coming years. The combined impact of these measures should ensure that the Council is properly equipped to welcome new members in the near future with minimum upheaval.

1. The European Council's primary purpose must be to continue to provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development and define general political guidelines. One means of helping it better fulfil these tasks is to make the Presidency conclusions more concise (maximum 15 pages(3)) thereby focusing them on the political decisions taken on the items actually discussed at the meeting.

2. The General Affairs Council must be in a position to deal effectively with horizontal internal issues including overall policy coordination. The General Affairs Council agenda shall accordingly be divided into two distinct parts. Member States shall ensure that they are suitably represented at ministerial level at both parts of the session.

3. The General Affairs Council is responsible for the overall coordination of European Council preparatory work.

4. Subject to the requirement laid down in Article 3 of the TEU for the Council and the Commission to ensure consistency in external relations, and in accordance with their respective responsibilities under the Treaties, the Presidency, the Secretary-General/High Representative and the Commissioner for external relations, will cooperate closely in order to ensure overall continuity and coherence of action by the Union in external relations.

5. The Secretary-General/High Representative shall, in accordance with the Treaties:

(i) assist the Presidency in coordinating work in the Council to ensure coherence on the various aspects of the Union's external relations;

(ii) contribute to preparing policy decisions and formulating options for the Council on foreign and security policy matters, so that it constantly focuses on the major political issues requiring an operational decision or political guidance;

(iii) contribute to the implementation of foreign and security policy decisions in close coordination with the Commission, Member States and other authorities responsible for effective application on the ground.

6. The Secretary-General/High Representative may receive specified mandates from the Council.

7. Given the increasing administrative burden of organising ministerial level meetings with third countries, in particular under cooperation and association agreements, more effective management of such meetings will be achieved by:

(i) drawing up systematic schedules of ministerial meetings with third countries covering the current and the next two Presidencies, adjusted on a rolling basis, to enable an appropriate shareout of the administrative burden and ensure adequate preparation;

(ii) seeking the consent of third parties to including provisions under existing or future cooperation and association agreements:

which, as far as timing of meetings is concerned, do not specify a given periodicity, but allow ministerial meetings to be convened when warranted by a substantive agenda after proper preparation;

and which, as far as the level of representation is concerned, provide that the Council will as a rule be represented at ministerial level by the Presidency, assisted by the Secretary-General/High Representative, and the incoming Presidency. Other members of the Council may designate representatives at official level;

(iii) ensuring that, as far as political dialogue meetings are concerned, the Presidency and the High Representative make the most effective use of both possibilities offered under the Treaty for conducting such meetings (i.e. the Presidency, assisted by the Secretary-General/High Representative or the High Representative at the request of the Presidency on the Council's behalf) in order to streamline the Union's political dialogue arrangements, in full association with the Commission.

8. The Secretary-General/High Representative is invited to draw up a report for the Council examining ways and means of using the networks of Member States' embassies and Commission delegations throughout the world to strengthen implementation of the Union's action and assist him in carrying out his tasks.

9. In order to improve the coherence and consistency of the Council's work, the number of Council formations shall be reduced to a maximum of 15. The General Affairs Council shall take the necessary steps to achieve this objective as soon as possible by merging certain Council formations, by handling certain matters in other relevant Council formations and by making maximum use of "back to back" arrangements when convening closely-related Council formations.

10.In convening Council sessions, particular attention shall be paid to the management and organisation of the agenda in order to allow Member States to be represented in each Council formation as they deem appropriate on the basis of their own internal organisation. The Presidency shall endeavour to ensure as a rule that each Council formation has a single President.

11.Without prejudice to Article 1(1) of the Council's rules of procedure, Council formations and sessions shall only be convened when a substantive agenda exists (e.g. when policy decisions are to be taken or political orientations are to be given) or when required by objective deadlines.

Failure to meet these criteria would imply not convening the Council formation or session in question.

*12.No new formations of the Council may be convened unless the General Affairs Council so decides.

13.Joint sessions of different Council formations shall no longer be convened, save in exceptional circumstances.

14.Each Member State will keep under permanent review its internal coordination arrangements for EU matters so that they are tailored to ensuring the optimum functioning of the Council. On the basis of a contribution from each Member State giving a practical description of internal coordination procedures on EU matters, a summary of coordination systems in the different

Member States will be compiled by December 2000.

*15. Delegations shall ensure that proposed textual amendments are properly drafted, including during the first reading of a text by a Working Party.

*16. The Council shall refrain from adopting resolutions, declarations, or any other non-standard form of act when dealing with legislative matters.

17.In order to speed up work on the codification of legislative texts and increase the amount of legislation available in a codified and more readable form:

(i) a strict deadline of 30 days shall be imposed within the Council for delegations to comment on proposals. The European Parliament should be approached in order to agree on procedural deadlines for giving its opinion on codification proposals;

(ii) the Council will seek a further Interinstitutional agreement with the European Parliament and the Commission as soon as possible on the use of a fast-track method for the "recasting" technique (i.e. using the opportunity offered by an amendment to a basic act to codify all of it), subject to ensuring that the principles and spirit of the codification technique (i.e. codification of texts as published without substantive amendment) are respected.

18.The Presidency shall, as an integral part of its programming, take due account of the requirement to schedule conciliation and preparatory meetings, bearing in mind the deadlines applicable for codecision procedures. Contacts with the European Parliament at the first and second reading stages must be undertaken with the aim of bringing the procedure to a successful conclusion as swiftly as possible.

19.The Presidency and the General Secretariat are invited to propose by the end of 2000 further changes in the Council's working methods in dealing with codecided acts in the light of experience acquired in implementing the Joint Declaration of 4 May 1999.

20.Informal meetings of Ministers are designed to permit as free as possible an exchange of views on topics of general scope. They are not Council sessions and cannot replace the Council's normal activities. Such meetings are subject to the following rules:

(i) A maximum of 5 informal Ministerial meetings may be held during any Presidency;

(ii) No official agenda shall be drawn up;

(iii) The presence of assistants shall be limited to a maximum of two per minister;

(iv) Discussions must in no circumstances require Council documents to be prepared, either before or after the meeting;

(v) Meetings cannot arrive at formal conclusions or decisions. Any press communication must make this point explicitly clear.

21.Given that COREPER has responsibility for the final preparation and presentation of all agenda items to the Council(5), it shall be responsible for assembling all preparatory work undertaken by different vertical bodies for both multidisciplinary and interpillar dossiers. In order to carry out effectively this role:

(i) the Presidency, assisted by the General Secretariat, shall ensure effective forward planning of all multidisciplinary and interpillar dossiers;

(ii) all evaluations, assessments or contributions from other bodies must be available for the COREPER meeting preparing the Council where a final decision is to be made(6);

(iii) as a rule, a single Presidency or Secretariat paper shall be prepared for the Council encompassing all contributions and aspects of the dossier;

(iv) the Antici, Mertens or "Friends of the Presidency" groups may be called on to assist COREPER in this task.

*22. Preparatory work by COREPER for a legislative item on the Council agenda must be completed by the end of the week preceding the week prior to the Council. Failure to do so will, as a general rule, result in such items automatically being removed from the Council agenda unless considerations of urgency require otherwise.

*23. For any dossiers where substantive preparation is undertaken in other fora, COREPER must in any case be in a position to verify that the following principles and rules are respected:

(i) the principle of legality in the light of Community law, including the principles of subsidiarity, proportionality and of providing reasons for acts;

(ii) the powers of Union institutions;

(iii) budgetary provisions;

(iv) rules on procedure, transparency and the quality of drafting of legislation;

(v) consistency with other Union policies and measures.

24. Ad hoc meetings of COREPER may be convened by the Presidency at short notice in order to discuss specific urgent matters.

*25. The incoming Presidency shall assist the Presidency, while preserving fully the Presidency's powers and overall political responsibility for managing Council business in conformity with the Treaties and the Council's rules of procedure. The incoming Presidency, acting under the Presidency's instructions, shall replace the Presidency as and when required, relieve the Presidency, when needed, of some of its administrative burden and enhance continuity of work in the Council. The Presidency and the incoming Presidency will take all the necessary steps to ensure a smooth transition from one Presidency to the next.

*26. Procedures for public access to Council documents should be streamlined and automated as far as possible using modern technology, including the Internet, without prejudice to general principles governing the right of access to documents to be decided in accordance with Article 255 of the Treaty.

*27. The General Affairs and ECOFIN Councils shall each hold a public debate every six months on the Presidency's work programme.

*28. At least one public Council debate should be held on important legislative proposals.

COREPER shall decide on public debates by qualified majority.

29. In order to ensure more interesting public debates, discussion shall be organised as follows:

(i) delegations shall be invited, in time before the Council, to communicate to the Presidency and the Secretariat their views on the proposal or the item to be publicly debated;

(ii) the Presidency, on the basis of the written statements, shall draw up a one page note containing a brief questionnaire;

(iii) this note shall be circulated to delegations before the start of the meeting and will constitute the basis on which the debate shall be conducted.

30. The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission are urged to take steps to pool as far as possible efforts to provide coordinated general information about the Union, in particular by optimising use of existing resources; in this context, it might be useful to examine the feasibility of setting up in Brussels a joint European Parliament, Council and Commission information centre for receiving visitors to the institutions and coordinating publications on EU matters for the general public.

31. The Commission is invited to study the general question of the Union's information policy, including improving coordination with its information offices in the Member States and links with national information offices.

Programming of Council work

32. Each Presidency shall, in cooperation with the Commission, the General Secretariat and the future Presidency, programme all legislative activities as well as all other aspects of the Council's work not dependent on the latest political developments.

*33. Seven months before the beginning of each Presidency, the incoming President of the Council shall make known the dates envisaged for all Council sessions where it is clear that legislative work needs to be undertaken or operational policy decisions need to be made.

The final Presidency programme may provide for additional Council sessions, provided they are warranted for operational reasons. If a programmed session proves to be no longer warranted, it shall be cancelled.

*34. The Presidency programme, in the form of indicative Council provisional agendas indicating operational decisions and legislative work, shall be finalised at the latest one week before the beginning of the Presidency.

Working Parties

35. When deemed useful, the Presidency may invite delegations to submit preliminary comments and positions in writing by a specified deadline before the Working Party begins its work on a new proposal. On the basis of the written contributions, a working paper will be produced setting out in an ordered way the main issues arising in order to guide and structure the initial debate in the Working Party.

36. A list of all Council preparatory bodies(7) shall be updated regularly by the General Secretariat as a result of decisions to establish such bodies by COREPER or the Council.

37. The Council and COREPER shall refrain from setting up new high level working parties.

*38. All Working Party meetings preparing a legislative item for COREPER must complete their work at least 5 working days prior to the COREPER meeting in question. Failure to do so will, as a general rule, result in the item automatically being postponed to the following COREPER meeting, unless considerations of urgency require otherwise.

39. Without prejudice to Article 2 of the Council's rules of procedure, the Presidency and Secretariat shall ensure that items are only proposed for inclusion on Council provisional agendas when decisions or political guidance are necessary.

40. Council discussions shall be based on clear guidelines, options or suggested solutions prepared by COREPER for the key issues under examination.

41. Council and COREPER discussions shall focus on reacting to options or solutions presented in the Presidency or Secretariat paper. Well-known arguments or positions should be developed in written statements.

42. Full table rounds shall be proscribed in principle; they may only be used in exceptional circumstances on specific questions, with a time limit on interventions set by the Presidency.

43. Where a good prospect exists of proposing a compromise for resubmission the same day, the Presidency shall convene a working party in the margins of COREPER or Council meetings.

If a compromise emerges in the course of a Council or COREPER debate, the agreed decision shall be framed in parallel with the meeting.

*44. Decisions may only be taken in formal sessions of the Council. The General Secretariat shall verify that a quorum exists for a decision to be taken. The Presidency shall provide for more restricted and super-restricted sessions during formal meetings (which include Ministerial conclaves) in order to discuss politically sensitive or classified subjects, instead of dealing with such matters over lunch.

*45. The Presidency may, inter alia:

(i) fix in advance the time to be allocated for agenda items in COREPER and Council where no objective need exists for a decision to be reached;

(ii) organise the time allotted for discussion of a particular item;

(iii)determine numbers per delegation present in the meeting room (i.e. whether to hold restricted or super-restricted sessions);

(iv)make use of points of order each time it is necessary to ensure the conditions imposed regarding the conduct of a discussion are respected.

Role of the General Secretariat

46.The General Secretariat's supporting role as advisor to the Council and the Presidency shall be strengthened by being continually and closely associated in programming, coordinating and ensuring the coherence of the Council's work. In particular, it is encouraged to play a more active role, under the Presidency's responsibility and guidance, in assisting it in its "good offices" function and searching for compromise solutions.

47.Documents issued by the General Secretariat and used as a basis for negotiations in the Council and its preparatory bodies must be concise and set out clearly the issues to be decided including, where appropriate, options or avenues for compromise. Lengthy records of meetings describing delegations' positions should be avoided.

*48. The Secretary-General/High Representative shall have full responsibility for managing the Council budget.

Organisation of the General Secretariat

49.The Secretary-General/High Representative is invited to take steps to adapt the General Secretariat rapidly to the changing requirements of the Council, in particular by:

(i) tailoring its structures to the operational requirements of the Council, in particular by reorganising work in larger administrative units;

(ii) strengthening internal auditing to ensure the best possible match between the Council's requirements and the human and material resources available in the General Secretariat;

(iii)introducing a flexible and dynamic staff policy designed to provide greater staff motivation.

This will involve ensuring adequate staff training so that the Secretariat is able to fulfil effectively an enhanced supporting role. The possibility of short-term exchanges with national administrations should be considered as part of this training.

50.The Secretary-General/High Representative is urged to review the Council's and the General Secretariat's working methods in order to improve efficiency by making optimum use of modern technology, including improved use of data processing and electronic means, adapting procedures and the document production and transmission circuit and targeting staff training at the needs of modernisation.

Material aspects of the Council's work

51.The Secretary-General/High Representative is invited to undertake a detailed examination of the technical and methodological means available for increasing the translating and interpreting capability at the disposal of the Council.

52.In the light of the above study, an examination should be undertaken to see how, at the preparatory level, the necessary efficiency of the Council can be ensured while respecting the provisions on the principles of equality of and non-discrimination among the Union's official languages(8).

Building requirements and configuration of meeting rooms

53.While keeping the Council duly informed, the Secretary-General/High Representative shall have full responsibility for evaluating the building requirements for a substantially enlarged Council and how these requirements can be satisfied, so that detailed proposals can be made to the Council in due course in the light of that evaluation.

54.In order to allow effective deliberations and negotiations after enlargement, it will be essential to reduce numbers present in meeting rooms and at the main table. For meetings of the European Council, each delegation shall have no more than two seats at the table. For meetings of Council preparatory bodies (Committees and Working Parties), each delegation shall have one seat at the table, unless stipulated otherwise. The Secretary-General/High Representative is requested to study the appropriate configuration of meeting rooms for Council sessions and make appropriate proposals. This study shall take account of the various constraints linked to work in different Council formations.

55.The Secretary-General/High Representative shall evaluate implementation of these recommendations and, if appropriate, make further practical suggestions by July 2001 for improving the Council's working methods.