Dec 15, 2006 (Romania Report and sources)
Yesterday, before the European Council meeting started, a "Gingerbread Event” ceremony was organised by the EC, in order to honour the EU entry of Romania and Bulgaria on Jan. 1, 2007. Romania’s President Traian Basescu and PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu attended the ceremony.
“Welcome to the EU! Welcome home!” the EC President Jose Barroso said in Romanian and Bulgarian, at the debut of the outdoor ceremonial in the St. Madeleine Square in Brussels, on Thursday.
The EU summit started in Brussels on December 14th, and the Council of the European Union approved the concluding document on Bulgaria and Romania’s membership, which is due on January 1st 2007.
Romania under pressure to reform
The Financial Times analyst Chris Condon yesterday reported from Bucharest that since giving Romania the green light to join the European Union on January 1, Brussels has been keen to impress on Bucharest that accession should not be viewed as the finishing line.
Theerefore Romania will enter the EU under pressure to continue a host of reforms or risk specific penalties built in to “safeguard” clauses in its accession treaty.
Brussels will implement a more active and extensive monitoring system for determining whether Bucharest keeps it word than any of the central European countries that joined in 2004 were subjected to.
At the moment, EU officials appear more concerned about payments systems than any other area. Romania will be eligible for €3.2bn in EU funds in 2007 for everything from infrastructure development to agricultural subsidies. However, by several accounts, the government is way behind in preparing the administrative and IT infrastructure needed to receive and distribute the money according to EU rules. Brussels will not release the cash until the systems are in place, FT reads.
In judicial reforms and in fighting corruption, Romania has made substantial progress over the last two years but still has much to do. Brussels expects certain legislation to be adopted that will help institutionalise and enforce earlier anti-corruption measures.
Several prominent criminal cases, including the upcoming trial of Adrian Nastase, a former prime minister charged with taking bribes and trafficking influence, are also making their way towards the courts. These will test the competence and independence of prosecutors and judges. Convictions would also go far in boosting public confidence in the anti-corruption effort. A failure to complete judicial reforms could tempt Brussels to withhold recognition of Romanian court cases outside Romania.
On a more mundane level, Romania will also face an enormous institutional challenge in enforcing a galaxy of EU regulations in areas such as food safety, consumer protection, worker safety and environmental protection. Problems with translation alone mean that most small companies are largely unaware of what will be expected of them if rules are enforced come January 1.
EU warns Russia on meat ban after Romanian, Bulgarian EU entry
The European Union on Thursday warned Russia against plans to ban meat imports from the entire 25-nation bloc as of January 1, 2007 in a bid to keep out exports from Romania and Bulgaria which join the EU on New Year's Day, as DPA reports.
The European Commission - the EU's executive arm - also denounced Russian efforts to clinch food security deals with individual EU states which would allow such imports to take place from specific countries.
"We have told the Russians this is unacceptable and that they should be talking to the EU as a whole," said EU spokesman Philip Tod.
Tod said that although several EU countries including Germany, had been approached to sign such an agreement, no government had as yet taken up the offer.
"EU countries have agreed to coordinate their positions," the spokesman said, adding that the commission had reminded Russia and EU states that such bilateral agreements would not be in line with the bloc's policy.
"There is also the political question of whether this would be wise," said Tod, adding: "The EU is stronger when it puts up a united front."
Russia's chief vet Sergei Dankvert said earlier this week that Moscow was set to ban meat imports from the entire EU because of concerns over the safety of meat from Bulgaria and Romania given the countries' lax food safety standards.
That threat, coming on the eve of an EU-Russia summit in Helsinki, supplemented an existing Moscow-Warsaw spat over a ban on Polish animal products.
As a result, Poland held up EU plans to open negotiations on a new cooperation pact with Russia.
The Commission also said earlier this week that it would allow the import of meat only from Bulgarian and Romanian farms that already have permission to export into the Union.
EU summit set to toughen enlargement policy
Turkey looks set to be put to one side when EU leaders meet yesterday, in favour of a broader debate on enlargement. For now, at least, a decision has been made over would-be member Turkey. On Monday, a partial freeze on talks with Ankara was agreed by EU foreign ministers to penalize Turkey for failing to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus. The move should help ease the concerns of some who question the European credentials of the predominantly Muslim country.
But what of the other nations lining up at the EU's door?
The two-day summit in Brussels is expected to see a toughening of policy on enlargement, without slamming the door on those who want to join the club. Croatia is the first hopeful in the queue. But it will likely have to wait until at least 2010 until it is allowed in. Romania and Bulgaria have already secured their entry on January 1 next year but under conditions much stricter than those applied to previous new members.
Romania Report & sources
No comments:
Post a Comment