EU Set to Announce Bulgaria & Romania Entry into European Union

The EU is set to announce the precise timetable and conditions for admitting Romania and Bulgaria into the European Union. Early reports have indicated that Bucharest and Sofia will be told they may be able to join the EU as early as 1 January 2007. However, it is believed that strict conditions may be applied to their membership.

|PIC1|The two nations will be monitored for their progress in reducing crime rates, controlling animal diseases, as well as implementing new procedures for administering aid to farms. Most commentators are saying that the proposed conditions are likely to be harsher than those issued to previous new members.

Only half of the current EU membership has stated that they would support further extension of the current members, and the newly imposed conditions seem to be an assurance for the doubters, as well as a warning to Turkey and other Balkan region nations that are still pushing for entry into the Union.

In particular, the President of the Commission, Jose, Manuel Barroso, has commented that the EU cannot further expand until the stalling EU constitution is finalised.

Bulgaria and Romania were two countries that did not make the cut during the EU's big eastward expansion in 2004. However, it is now expected that the EU will announce a proposed 2007 date, as opposed to the 2008 alternative.

Commentators have been more concerned with the status of Bulgaria's application to enter, than Romania's. Particularly highlighted has been the organised crime witnessed in the country, and unless it cracks down on this organised crime, legal decisions taken by its courts could be disregarded in the rest of Europe.

Both countries will have to report two times a year on its progress in fighting against corruption, and by March 2007 they will have had to set up agencies to oversee millions of Euros worth of aid set for farms. If they do not do this satisfactorily they may be denied up to 25 per cent of the donation.

Bulgarian planes could also be banned from flying into EU airspace until the country improves its air safety standards.

An EU official has emphasised that the commission did not want to punish Bulgaria and Romania, but to make them work harder to carry out reforms.