European Parliament 8 July 2002, WRITTEN QUESTION P-2071/02 by Carlos Ripoll y Martínez de Bedoya (PPE-DE) to the Commission. European Region of the Year.

The principle of differentiation whereby the individual candidate countries are judged solely on their own merits remains fully applicable. The European Council in autumn 2002 will therefore decide, on the basis of the Regular Reports to be submitted by the Commission, which will be the candidate countries with which negotiations can be concluded at the end of 2002.