Bulgaria, Romania OK'd for 2007 EU Entry
AP  | Wed, Apr 13, 2005 | By JAN SLIVA
 

STRASBOURG, France - The European Parliament on Wednesday approved the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union in 2007, but it said both countries still need to make reforms.

EU officials have urged the two Balkan nations to do more to fight corruption and organized crime, and the approval by EU legislators is not a guarantee they will join the 25-nation bloc in two years. Their entry treaties contain clauses that may trigger a one-year delay if certain conditions are not met.

"Romania and Bulgaria must deliver on key reforms," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said. "We won't hesitate to use safeguard clauses. The agreement must be conditional. If they fall too far behind, accession may be delayed."

Legislators voted 522-70 in favor of Bulgaria, with 69 abstentions, and 497-93 in favor of Romania, with 71 abstentions, in two ballots after a heated debate in which some members asked for a postponement of the vote, demanding the two nations be given more time to implement necessary reforms.

Both nations welcomed the decision and said they would work to meet the conditions.

"We are grateful to our colleagues in the European Parliament for their support for Bulgaria on its road toward the European Union," parliament speaker Borislav Velikov said after announcing the result to applause in Bulgaria's legislature.

In Bucharest, Romania's Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu declared his determination to conform to EU standards.

"The EU is not a guest house that takes everyone, and is not a club that has absurd requirements. We will consolidate the rule of law. We will prepare the administration so that EU laws will be applied in Romania. European integration remains the top goal of my Cabinet," he said.

The EU has criticized Bulgaria's failure to adopt a new anti-corruption penal code and had also called for greater efforts to combat organized crime.

Romania, which the EU declared to be a market economy only last June, must also boost justice and law enforcement, as well as securing rights for the Roma minority. It must also increase environmental protection, accelerate antitrust rules and shed its history of state aid, epitomized by an oversized steel sector.

"No one can say Romania is ready to join the community," said EU Green party leader Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit. "Press freedoms, corruption and other issues need to be resolved."

Wednesday's vote followed a last-minute agreement on budgetary terms acceptable to the European People's Party, the parliament's largest political group, and the Greens, who had sought guarantees they would be involved in procedures for financing the latest EU enlargement.

The EU foreign ministers and their Bulgarian and Romanian counterparts are to sign the accession treaties April 25, giving their national parliaments 20 months to ratify the entry of two newcomers, which will raise the EU's membership to 27.

The European Commission is to issue an update in November on how the two Balkan countries are doing in their reform efforts.

Bulgaria and Romania lag behind even the poorest current EU members. Bulgaria's per capita GDP is only $3,255, while Romania's per capita GDP is even lower at $2,850. In the richest EU countries, per capita GDP is well over $26,000.