Romania and Bulgaria to join EU next year

Romania and Bulgaria to join EU next year

The commission had the option of recommending their entry be delayed for a year, but will not do so, EU diplomats said on condition of anonymity because the report remains confidential until it is presented to the European Parliament on Tuesday.

EU officials say delaying the two Balkan nations' entry by a year would do little to accelerate reforms. The two countries would get an automatic 2008 entry date and the European Commission would have no bargaining power.

On Tuesday, the EU executive is set to recommend close monitoring of food safety issues, EU subsidy programs and several justice and home affairs fronts — reflecting concerns over the two countries whose economies are a third the size of the EU average and who have reputations for rampant corruption, according to the draft report.

The draft report says corruption and judicial affairs remain problematic, listing six areas for Bulgaria and four for Romania that the countries' governments need to address.

They include investigations into high-level corruption and cracking down on organized crime. Money laundering is a particular concern in Bulgaria and Romania must establish an anti-corruption panel that will also examine state officials' potential conflicts of interest, the draft report says.

The details of how to monitor justice and home affairs issues will spelled out after consultations with EU member states later this year, the diplomats said.

Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu last week promised EU officials in Brussels the work on establishing National Integrity Agency to fight corruption would be accelerated.

Citing concerns over food safety, the EU will maintain a ban on pork from Romania and Bulgaria after both countries have acknowledged they have problems containing swine fever.

If they fail to meet EU standards, the bloc has reserved the right to activate "safeguards," or protective measures, such as temporarily suspending some rights that come with membership. The EU could also temporarily freeze EU aid.

The Romanian and Bulgaria membership agreements contain "super safeguard clauses" that make a one-year delay of entry possible if the two candidates are deemed unprepared — the first time such a provision is being used in several decades of EU enlargement.

While there will not be a delay, the two newcomers' entry will not be a festive occasion because conditions for membership are the strictest ever. The provisos will also be anxiously watched by countries — such as Turkey and Western Balkan nations — that hope to join in the years ahead.

In the last wave of expansion in 2004 — which Romania and Bulgaria were originally supposed to be part of — the 10 newcomers had their membership terms sealed long before joining.

Opinion surveys show most Europeans generally see EU expansion as good way to unite the continent. But they question some of the candidates.

Turkey, a nation of more than 70 million, has begun entry talks, but refuses to recognize EU member Cyprus and struggles with human rights problems.

The EU's July Eurobarometer poll found 48 percent of the EU population oppose Turkish membership. Opposition was strongest in Austria (81 percent), said the poll, followed by Germany and Luxembourg (both 69 percent), Greece (67 percent), Cyprus (68 percent), the Czech Republic (61 percent), Belgium, Finland and Slovakia (all 55 percent) and France (54 percent)

Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania and Macedonia want to join but have serious governance problems.