The ratification procedure of Bulgaria and Romania's EU accession treaty is legally over.

On November 24 2006 Germany became the 25th EU member to end all procedures related to the approval of the accession treaty and thus ended the overall procedure.

The ratified document had already been presented to Italian foreign minister Massimo D'Alema, as Italy's government acts as EU treaties depository, German embassy in Sofia said on December 20 2006.

After all EU members ratified the treaty, no judicial impediments existed for Bulgaria and Romania to join the EU on January 1 2007, mediapool.bg said.

Bulgaria and Romania concluded accession negotiations on December 14 2004. The two countries signed their accession treaty on April 25 2005 in Luxembourg. Bulgaria's National Assembly ratified the treaty on May 11 2005 and launched the procedure.