Bulgaria and Romania will be ready for membership of the European Union in January 2007 if they can address a series of outstanding serious issues, mainly linked to organised crime in corruption, in the next few months, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said today.
He was speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg as European enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn prepared to unveil a crucial report by the EC on the two countries’ readiness to join the EU.
A final decision on the date of accession of the two countries, which signed an accession treaty with the EU in April 2005, will be made in October 2006.
Barroso said that since October, the date of the previous EC report, the governments of Romania and Bulgaria had worked hard, and credit had to be given where it was due.
Further work on justice and home affairs was needed, Barroso said.
Bulgaria needed to demonstrate clear evidence of progress in the fight against organised crime and corruption, especially at high level. The country needed to further reform the judiciary and to remove any ambiguity about its independence.
Romania still faced problems with corruption and the consolidation of ongoing judicial reforms.
Rehn said that the EC wanted Bulgaria and Romania to join the EU on January 1 2007. There would be a continuing monitoring process, and the EC would admit the two countries only if it was convinced that they were ready.
On May 17, EC president Jose Manuel Barroso and Rehn will visit Bulgaria and will hold talks on the EC report with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, the Government media office announced.
In the European Parliament, responding to the tabling of the report, MEP Martin Schultz of the Social Democrats said that there were no major obstacles, and January 1 2007 remained the accession date for Bulgaria and Romania.
Graham Watson of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats said that the commission should not revisit its decision in October unless there were grave circumstances.
The same criteria should apply for Bulgaria and Romania as for the previous 10 member states.
Bulgaria and Romania were moving in the right direction, and should be shown that they were not “walking alone,” Watson said.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit of the Greens said: “We knew before that Bulgaria and Romania were not ready to join the EU”. He favoured enlargement but not at any cost, he said.
European Parliament rapporteur for Bulgaria Geoffrey van Orden said that Bulgaria fulfilled the political criteria for membership and already had a functioning market economy. Problems with organised crime persisted and many crime bosses were still at large.
“In the coming months we need to see drastic measures,” Van Orden said.
There was a need for stricter control of the future use of structural funds. It was up to the EC to ensure effective regulation was in place or to withhold funds until there was proper monitoring.
“In other words, it is yes, but to some extent.”
Van Orden said that much had been achieved in the past six months, and it was of vital importance for the process to continue in the coming six.
After the report was released, Bulgarian National Radio said that the report was less optimistic than expected.
The chairperson of the Bulgarian Parliament’s committee on foreign affairs, Solomon Passi, said that while the January 2007 entry date had not been confirmed, the report was favourable for Bulgaria.
A right-wing opposition party, the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, said that the EC report was not satisfactory.
For Bulgaria to fulfil the EU requirements by October, a new Government would have to be elected. The “unfavourable” report was sufficient reason for the Government to resign, the DSB said.
Former president Petar Stoyanov, now leader of the centre-right Union of Democratic Forces, said that the EC report showed that nothing had been achieved in the past six months.
Interviewed on May 15 by Bulgarian National Television, ahead of the release of the report, Bulgaria’s European Integration Minister Meglena Kouneva said that nothing stood in the way of Bulgaria and Romania being able to join the EU on January 1 2007.
A discussion was held on May 15 about the report by Bulgaria’s tripartite governing coalition political council, made up of Prime Minister and Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergei Stanishev, National Movement Simeon II leader Simeon Saxe-Coburg, and Ahmed Dogan, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
A statement after the political council meeting said that the discussion was held on the basis of information supplied by Kouneva about the report.
“The leaders of the three parties voiced their definite political will to work at a faster pace in order to fulfil all recommendations by the EC and achieve their common goal, full membership for our country on January 1 2007,” the statement said.
By the end of next week, Kouneva will prepare and put to the Cabinet an action plan on Bulgaria’s EU integration, the political council agreed.
In the days and weeks leading up to the EC report’s release, media and political circles indulged in considerable speculation about what entry date would be given, or whether one would be given at all.
Several reports predicted that safeguard clauses would be invoked because of the slow pace of judicial reforms and the need for more decisive anti-organised crime measures.
Rehn’s previous report on Bulgaria’s reform progress was followed by several reports in the Western media emphasising the need for urgent reforms in justice and home affairs. If Bulgaria failed to show satisfactory improvement in the remaining problematic areas, safeguard clauses would be introduced, Rehn’s earlier report said.
In the months following the report, the Bulgarian Government was at pains to show that it was making an adequate effort to carry out reforms. Despite the Government offering evidence that the fight against crime was improving, and the required changes to laws were being made, reports by EU officials remained critical.
In the days immediately before the release of the May 16 report, several media reports said that the EC would withhold recommending a date so as to maintain pressure on Bulgaria to step up reforms. The content of today’s EC report was kept secret until the last moment.
More in-depth analysis of the European Commission report in The Sofia Echo. Full coverage in Issue 20, on sale starting May 19.
