EP committee gives green light to Bulgaria and Romania

The Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has acknowledged
Bulgaria and Romania’s progress towards EU membership, but stresses
that much still needs to be done.

The Parliament’s report on Romania‘s
progress towards EU membership was described by rapporteur MEP
Pierre Moscovici (PES, France) as “encouraging but demanding;
demanding but friendly”. According to the MEPs, negotiations with
Bucharest should be concluded rapidly, “by the end of 2004”, in
order for the country to be able to sign the Accession Treaty in
2005 and join the EU in early 2007. 

MEPs reiterated the option of a specific safeguard mechanism “in
the event of serious shortcomings” in Bucharest’s observance of its
commitments. In that case, the Commission could recommend that the
Council, based on a unanimous vote, “delay accession by one
year”. 

Recognising Romania’s progress, the report, which passed with 64
votes in favour, eight against and five abstentions, pointed to the
need for “further reforms in the spheres of justice and public
administration and greater efforts to combat corruption”.

As for Bulgaria, the Foreign Affairs
Committee’s report, adopted by 72 votes in favour, three against
and one abstention, stated that the country should be in a position
to join the EU as scheduled on 1 January 2007. The report declared
that Bulgaria meets the Copenhagen political criteria, and thus the
MEPs saw no obstacle to the signing of the Accession Treaty in the
early spring of 2005. At the same time, the report also
underlined the need for Sofia to make greater efforts to fight
organised crime, corruption and trafficking in human
beings. 

According to an amendment to the report, Bulgaria’s accession
timetable should not be linked to that of any other candidate
country. However, under a Parliament vote on 1 December, Bulgaria
and Romania are bound to stay paired in their pre-accession
efforts.

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