President Basescu praises EC monitoring report on Romania’s progress towards EU accession (May 17, 2006)

May 17, 2006 (Romania Report)

Today, Romania’s President Traian Basescu left on his own feet the Vienna General Hospital (Das Allgemeine Krankenhaus—AKH) in order to return home. He delivered a short press statement and expressed his warm thanks to the Austrian physician team and to all Romanians who supported him while in hospital.

President Basescu said he will continue post-surgical recovery programme at Elias hospital in Bucharest. Last week went to Vienna AKH hospital for urgent and complex discus hernia surgery. A week after the procedure Basescu’s physical condition improved significantly and he was able to leave the hospital on his own feet.

Yesterday, following the EC monitoring report on Romania, President Basescu said the document represents an appropriate account regarding Romania’s progress as an EU acceding country, a communiqué reads. Basescu showed his confidence that the country will join EU on Jan 1st 2007, as planned.

Basescu also underlined that the Govt. is to pay increased attention to those issues in the report which are labeled by the ‘serous concern’ syntagm—three ‘red flags’ for agriculture sector and one ‘red flag’ for finance.

President Basescu said that Romania’s Cabinet main task is to work hard so that, after the EU entry in 2007, the country is granted free access to all structural funds.

High EC officials visit Bucharest following monitoring report

Yesterday night EC President Jose Barroso and EC Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn arrived in Romania for assessing the country’s prospects in joining EU on Jan 1st, 2007.

This morning, president Barroso and Commissioner Rehn met Romania’s PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu in order to assess the EC monitoring report—released yesterday—and to outline the country’s next necessary steps with a view to 2007 EU entry.

Barroso praised PM Tariceanu for Romania’s progress in the last six months and underlined that, in the immediate future, the judiciary system reform must represent ‘the priority of priorities’.

He added: “You should understand recommendations as stimulants in concluding the preparedness process. There is a message of confidence that I myself and Commissioner Rehn want to give. (…) We want Romania to join EU on Jan 1st 2007. This is our shared target. I am fully convinced that you will succeed.”

When answering the question on a possible de-coupling of Romania and Bulgaria accession dates, President Barroso said that each country’s EU entry preparedness will be assessed separately but he wished that both countries to join EU on Jan 1st, 2007. He added that the EU acceding Romania and Bulgaria “will contribute to the regional stability.”

“It is a great political achievement—i.e. Europe’s re- unification, as for so long an artificial line divided the continent,” Barroso concluded his press statement.

Later, EC President Jose Barroso and EC Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn attended a joint session of the Romanian Parliament.

In his speech, PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu said that Govt. drafted development strategy for Romania as a EU member state. Tariceanu mentioned two main priorities in the post-accession strategy—the large-scale upgrading of the country’s infrastructure and massive investments in the ‘human capital’.

PM Tariceanu said that massive investments in education and R&D are meant to actually stimulate re-building the country’s elites—elites able to share fundamental human values, to promote social emancipations and support the rule of law in Romania.

Romania Report