INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES/

Universitatea JEAN MONNET AD PERSONAM CHAIR

EUROPEAN POLITICS AND NEGOTIATIONS
BABE-BOLYAI IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
Str. Napoca, nr. 11, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
www.isi-cluj.ro

Position paper

Prof. Dr. Vasile PUCA

Professor Jean Monnet Ad Personam

RENA Regional Training Workshop: EU Accession Negotiation Process

05 07 June, 2012, Skopje
 Content:

A. What is it?
B. The place of position paper in the
negotiation process.
C. How is constructed a position
paper?
D. A model of position paper.
 important are
basic can speed up
its function and
document for the negotiating
the ensuing
negotiations; process;
process.
 Acquis
B. The place of position paper
in the negotiation process
applied Candidate elaboration Position
country of
screening
paper

European All member

Comission states

all position papers of candidate countries are reviewed in

each member state;
each state must formulate its own position before EU
position can be laid down;
member states cannot arrive at a position if they do not
know the nature of a problem and why is it proposed this
particular type of transitional provision.
If position paper lacks precision:
 To be remembered :

General rule: it is not possible to send

papers with the idea that Commission
will look at them and come back with
informal remarks and questions;
Nearly every document that goes to
the Commission is distributed and
becomes public immediately.
When a problem is discovered
in the last minutes
 Advisable:

draw up a general model/scheme

model for inputs to
position papers to all ministries;

require all ministries to use that model when

drafting their contributions;

ministries should formulate precise proposals

and provide sufficient reasoning that can
serve as concrete basis for negotiations;

the final version of position papers must be

established by the negotiating team under
the authority of chief negociator.
negociator
Structure of a position
paper:

(1) THE PROBLEM;

(2) BACKGROUND;
(3) POINTS OF AGREEMENTS;
(4) POINTS OF DISAGREEMENT.

in the beginning, present a brief, direct and
clear statement of the major problem, issue
or question to be discussed;

this statement should consist of no more than

3 or 4 sentences at the most, indicate clearly
what the latter discussion and
recommendations will attempt to explain;

it must raise or ask a policy question

concerning a present or future problem;

the object of position paper will be to suggest

a solution/solutions to this problem.
 must provide the necessary
information and material for an
understanding and later analysis of
the problem;
it should be as direct and brief as

reasonably possible;
should consist factual material.
 a) What is our national interest
regarding this topic?
b) What form has our past
efforts/involvement on this topic taken?
c) Identify the overriding political,
economic, cultural or regional issues
that may affect your policy suggestions.
d) What other country/countries are
involved in this issue?
 should be written in short, direct and
clear sentences;
individual paragraphs will set forth ideas,
interpretations and points of view on
which there is a fairly general agreement;
you should have clear sources of opinion
(which must be clear indicated);
this section deal with agreement among
your sources, not points on which you
agree.
 is similar in format and presentation to the
Points of Agreement;
points of disagreement are those on which
there is a clear, fundamental lack of agreement;
major sources of opinion and analysis should
differ with one another;
you should list first the basic character of the
disagreement, then the conflicting ideas or
points of view should be set forth and
explained.
 To be remembered:

do not use contractions;

do not use word feel, use the words

believe, think, contend, maintain,
lean toward;

this is a formal paper, so the writing style

should reflect this fact. It should not be
casual and you should not use slang,
colloquialisms, abbreviations or a
preponderence of pronouns.
Human Dynamic, Manual 2011