On October 17, EU foreign ministers formally endorsed Bulgaria and Romania’s EU accession on January 1 2007, but the union was yet to draw lessons from the events leading up to this, EUobserver said.

The two countries’ slow entry preparations made EU members reconsider the future enlargement of the union.

The EU countries ministers also supported the imposition of a tough monitoring system on Bulgaria and Romania in order to assure that the two countries would continue the fight against organised crime and corruption, EUobserver said.

EU could impose sanctions on Bulgaria and Romania if their problems with crime and corruption damaged the union.

Among the sanctions EU could impose was a denial to recognise Bulgarian and Romanian court verdicts until up to three years after the two countries’ EU accession. Sanctions were foreseen in case of problems in such fields as food safety, agriculture and aviation security.

European Commission (EC), EU members and the European Parliament (EP) were currently dissatisfied with the safeguard measures imposed on Romania and Bulgaria.

Dutch Green MEP Joost Lagendijk said that the safeguard measures actually showed the two states were not ready for accession.