EUROPEAN enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn was due to arrive in Bulgaria on October 14 for crucial talks with top Government officials, ahead of the European Commission report on Bulgarias readiness for EU accession, to be published on October 25.
Rehn was to arrive after spending the previous day in Romania, Bulgarias northern neighbour also scheduled to join the EU in January 2007.
In the run-up to Rehns and the EC report, there was the now-customary round of mixed encouraging and discouraging signals regarding Bulgarias prospects for joining the EU on the scheduled date.
Speaking after a meeting on October 10 with ambassadors from EU states, Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said that some countries might object to ratifying Bulgarias accession treaty with the EU.
Kalfin did not disclose to which countries he was referring.
However, he said that during the meeting, representatives of some countries had expressed sensitivity about the question of EU enlargement.
Germany, which on October 10 saw a coalition government agreement making conservative Angela Merkel the new chancellor, has not yet begun the process of ratification.
The ratification process will take about eight months to complete in the Netherlands and Belgium. However, Greeces parliament is expected to ratify the treaty before the release of the EC report.
Kalfin said that he expected that about half of the EU member states would ratify the accession treaty before the end of 2005.
At the meeting with the EU ambassadors, the main issues discussed were the implementation of laws linked to EU membership, the situation on the Western Balkans, Bulgarias relations with Russia, and the Bulgarian medics facing the death sentence in Libya.
Kalfin said that there would be a further meeting involving Bulgarias ambassadors to EU countries on October 13 and 14. This meeting would discuss measures to stimulate the process of ratification of the accession treaty. Ambassadors of EU member states in Bulgaria would attend the meeting, Kalfin said.
European Integration Minister Meglena Kouneva, who participated in the October 10 meeting, told a news conference afterwards that it was very important for us to convey, through the ambassadors, the main message that for Bulgaria there is no alternative to the date of January 1 2007.
In a separate meeting, visiting European commissioner on health and consumer protection Markos Kyprianou told Kouneva that it was absolutely realistic to expect that Bulgaria would join the EU as scheduled in January 2007.
However, he said, Bulgaria was now in the most difficult phase of the pre-accession process. It was not just a matter of laws being approved by Parliament, but of them being implemented, Kyprianou said.
During a meeting with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, Kyprianou said that Bulgaria should carefully plan its next steps in the financial and political spheres so that it could deal with any unexpected scenarios.
Bulgarian news agency BTA reported that Stanishev told Kyprianou that Bulgaria enjoyed broad parliamentary and public support for EU accession on January 1 2007. He briefed Kyprianou on the steps being taken by the Cabinet and Parliament to catch up on the delay in preparations for EU membership.
Kyprianou said that he was pleased that a second-reading debate on a veterinary practice bill was scheduled. He said that such laws were very difficult to apply and were subject to strict control from the EC.
During a meeting with Economy and Energy Minister Roumen Ovcharov, Kyprianou said consumer protection was emerging as a foremost criterion for the advancement of EU membership aspirants.
Ovcharov noted that a Consumer Protection Directorate had been set up within his ministry on October 1.
