Nobody escaped criticism, but Poland got the most. Although there is no question of revising the decision to admit them to the Community, the candidates' failure to meet requirements will result in their losing millions in subsidies from the EU. In the near future, the European Commission will send warning letters to the candidate countries. They will detail all the specific measures that should be taken to eliminate the lag.
The European Commission, while acknowledging the progress made by the candidate countries, points to 39 areas in which they must take "decisive and urgent" measures. These include problems of the internal market, imperfections in the bodies responsible for distributing EU funds, environmental protection measures, and veterinary control.
A serious warning was issued regarding Poland: if in the coming months its slaughterhouses and dairy plants are not brought up to European standards, they will be closed, or at least their products will not be exported to European Community countries. "There will be no leniency, because this is about food safety: anything that does not meet EU standards is barred from our markets," the report stresses. Hungary and Slovakia have the same problems.
The Poles also lag in fisheries (from fish catch quotas and fisherman safety to the mesh size of seines and nets). Both Poland and others have problems training specialists in various professions, especially doctors, which will make it difficult for them to find jobs in EU countries.
Estonia lacks laws preventing discrimination in the workplace and social sphere. There are no bodies to inform citizens of their rights in fighting discrimination. The report singles out Estonia as the only EU candidate country that lacks state-level structures for conducting "social dialogue." The situation will improve when the country's parliament approves a framework law on equality, but its adoption is being delayed, and it also does not pay sufficient attention to the problem of reducing inequality related to language proficiency and national origin.
Romania and Bulgaria have been told of the need to step up the fight against corruption and economic crime. It came as a shock to Bucharest that Romania was not granted the status of a country with a functioning market economy, although Bulgaria received it as early as last year. Romania is recommended to continue the privatization and restructuring of its economy.