The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union will be officially announced last week in Brussels. But it is already known that the actual entry will take place on January 1, 2007, and not in 2008, as previously planned. The new date was named the day before by diplomatic sources in Brussels. The European Commission indicated that in the near future, both countries will not be able to claim equal rights with the other 25 EU members. According to European Commission representative Cristina Nagy, 'accession will only be possible if a number of conditions are met.' These conditions are outlined in the European Commission report, which specifies that Bulgaria and Romania must set up special independent agencies for distributing EU aid, which will be accountable to Brussels.
Among the requirements for Bulgaria is a change in the constitutional status of the judicial system, which must be clearly separated from other branches of government. For Romania, the requirements mainly concern anti-corruption activities. The European Commission will also insist that both countries comply with EU rules in the areas of food safety, the judicial system, fighting organized crime, and animal disease control. Both countries will have to introduce transparent procedures for distributing EU aid allocated to farms. Sofia and Bucharest will have to regularly inform Brussels of progress in these areas.
The most unpleasant thing for Romania and Bulgaria is that they can at any moment lose many privileges of EU membership. The fact is that the EU reserves the right to take protectionist measures against these countries, such as temporarily suspending some of their rights if, after joining the community, they do not comply with EU standards. Moreover, if the stated requirements are not met, sanctions can be applied to the two countries, significantly worsening their situation even compared to their current status. In addition, the EU will maintain a ban on imports of Bulgarian and Romanian pork and some restrictions on dairy imports from the two Eastern European countries due to low sanitary standards.
Another restrictive act of the European Commission also became known. Its President José Manuel Barroso called for a temporary suspension of the European Union's enlargement immediately after the accession of Bulgaria and Romania. According to Barroso, continuing further EU enlargement before the EU constitution issue is resolved 'would not be a wise decision.' 'This issue is not yet fully resolved, but in my opinion, it would be unwise to accept new members other than Bulgaria and Romania before we solve our internal problems,' said the head of the European Commission. Nevertheless, according to the Commission President, he would like Croatia to join the EU as soon as possible 'if it meets all the requirements.' Croatia expressed hope of completing EU accession negotiations by 2009. Apparently, by that time the EU enlargement process will resume.
The decision to suspend EU enlargement will delay the accession of Croatia, Turkey and Macedonia. All three countries recently received official candidate status for EU membership. However, José Manuel Barroso made it clear: the observer status will remain with these countries for at least another two to three years.
Recall that Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Macedonia also want to become EU members, but these countries still have many unresolved problems in public administration. Thus, from January 2007, the EU will have 27 member states. Currently, the European Union unites 25 countries.