MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bulgaria and Romania join EU under strict conditions

Romania and Bulgaria hailed Monday's announcement that they will be admitted to the European Union in January 2007, although under strict conditions that include curbing organized crime and corruption, ensuring food safety and proper use of EU funds.

Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, told the European parliament in Strasbourg that the two countries had made sufficient progress to avoid any further delay to their membership.

"Our conclusion is that both countries are in the position to take on the rights and obligations of EU membership on January 1 2007," he told MEPs to applause.

"The accession of Romania and Bulgaria will mark an historic achievement: the completion of the fifth enlargement of the European Union will further pursue the reunification of our European family."

In Sofia Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said the move was the final fall of the Berlin Wall for his country, and Romania's Calin Tariceanu underlined his people should be proud of themselves.

The announcement closes the final chapter on the 2004 enlargement of the EU when eight former Warsaw Pact countries - plus Malta and Cyprus - joined.

Today's announcement means that every Warsaw Pact country outside the former Soviet Union ? except Albania - will have become an EU member by January 1. So far only three former Soviet republics, Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, have been allowed in.

EU delayed Romania and Bulgaria's EU membership by nearly three years amid deep concerns about their failure to crack down on organised crime and corruption - and fears about their criminal justice systems.

Those fears were highlighted when the commission announced that it would impose a series of restrictions on both countries, with the toughest penalties falling on Bulgaria. The commission expressed particular unease about Bulgaria's "contract killings of persons that rarely result in successful investigations and prosecutions".

The number of cases prosecuted successfully related to trafficking of human beings, drug smuggling, money laundering, counterfeiting of goods, currency and documents is still low, so is illegal possession of firearms.

Romania is also criticized though less harshly. "A consistent interpretation and application of the law at all levels of courts throughout the country has not been fully ensured," the report says.

"Romania has continued to make progress in fighting corruption ... There needs to be a clear political willingness of all political actors to demonstrate the sustainability and irreversibility of the recent positive progress in the fight against corruption."

The commission is so concerned by the slow progress of reform that it has set Romania and Bulgaria a set of benchmarks - with a demand for a first report by the end of March next year.

Bulgaria will have to prove in its report that it has removed "any ambiguity regarding the independence and accountability of the judicial system" and conduct "professional, non-partisan investigations into allegations of high-level corruption". Romania must show more transparency in its judicial system.

If either country fails, it will be excluded from EU business in vital areas. Both countries are warned that they could see cuts in valuable agricultural payments unless they improve their payment systems.

Strong criticism is expected to strengthen the hand of critics who say that Romania and Bulgaria are not ready to join the EU.

The commission report comes amid a growing sense across the EU of what is being dubbed "enlargement fatigue". Mr Barroso described it elegantly when he said that the EU cannot expand any further - once Romania and Bulgaria have joined - until it works out what to with the comatose EU constitution. "There are some limits to our absorption capacity", he said.