13-12-01 Latvia and the EU have concluded the energy chapter of their negotiations on the Baltic nation's entry to the European Union, Latvia's chief negotiator said. Andris Kesteris said the agreement meant Latvia had finalized 22 of the 31 chapters of the negotiations and was on track to complete the process next year, as planned.
"We're very satisfied with the results so far, not only regarding the number of chapters closed but regarding the substance of the talks," Kesteris said. The energy chapter was wrapped up after EU negotiators agreed that Latvia could not immediately open its gas market to non-Russian suppliers due to a lack of alternative pipelines, he said.

He added however that Latvia's parliament has agreed on the need to liberalise the country's energy market. Latvia is one of 12 nations negotiating their entry into the 15-nation EU and hopes to join the bloc with the first group of aspirants by 2004.
On 13 November, the European Commission said it believed 10 of the 12 hopefuls could conceivably finish their accession negotiations by the end of 2002 and join the EU in time for the 2004 elections for the European Parliament. The 10 frontrunners are Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Malta. Romania and Bulgaria are the other candidates.