Germany would not play a slowdown role for Bulgaria’s EU entry on January 1 2007, head of the federal council Peter Harry Carstensen said.

Carstensen met Bulgaria’s Parliament speaker Georgi Pirinski on August 31, Bulgarian National Radio reported.

Germany was going to wait for the final European Commission report on Bulgaria’s readiness to join the EU before ratifying the country’s accession treaty, Carstensen said. The EC reports were the proper foundation upon which such decision needed to be made, said he.

On-time EU entry depended entirely on the Bulgarian effort, Pirinski said. The country was expected to deal with all problems marked in the latest EC report to guarantee its on-time entry, said Pirinski.

Carstensen said that both Bulgaria and the EU were going to gain from the country’s accession. The EU already recognised the stabilising role Bulgaria played in the Balkan region, said he.

Bulgaria’s EU entry was essential for the country so it needed to demonstrate clearly effort was being made to meet all accession criteria in time, said Carstensen.