Agenda 2000 was a strategy paper, adopted by the European Commission in 1997. It is significant because it set out the main political, economic and social issues that confronted the European Union at the beginning of the 21st century and put forward a strategy to respond to those issues. The principle issue was that of the enlargement of the Union, comprising 15 countries at the time, towards Central and Eastern Europe.The paper proposed a reform of the Union's policies and a new financial framework for the period 2000-2006. It consisted of three parts:the first addressed the question of the European Union's internal operation. It proposed a reform of the common agricultural policy and of the economic and social cohesion policy; the second proposed a reinforced pre-accession strategy; the third consisted of a study of the impact of enlargement on the policies of the European Union. In 1999, the European Council, meeting in Berlin, agreed to the proposals. The subsequent legislation, which gave legal effect to the proposals, was adopted later the same year.