| Author (Person) | Bower, Helen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Publisher | ProQuest Information and Learning | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Title | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Details | 23.2.02 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publication Date | 23/02/2002 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content Type | News, Overview, Topic Guide | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Support for EU membership in the applicant countries is greatest in Romania according to the first Eurobarometer survey in candidate countries, published in December 2001, despite the fact that the European Commission's 2001 Progress Report on enlargement shows that Romania is in fact lagging behind its fellow applicants. Based on the progress reports, the EU announced officially for the first time at the Laeken European Council in December 2001 that 10 candidate countries are on track for admission in 2004, the two which fail to get on the list are Romania and its neighbour Bulgaria. The main obstacles to Romania's accession are the lack of a functioning market economy, corruption and high inflation. A poor human rights record is also often cited as an area where improvement is needed. Based on these obstacles which still need to be overcome, the Prime Minister of Romania, Adrian Nastase, stated at Laeken that Romania does not expect to join sooner than 2005 or 2006. Analysts and EU diplomats have suggested the date may be as late as 2007. Background While Romania may be one of the last Central and Eastern European Countries to become an EU member it was in fact one of the first countries in this region to develop a well defined judicial framework in its relations with the European Community in the 1970s. This was followed by an agreement in 1980 concerning the establishment of the Joint Romania-CEE Commission. In December 1989, 45 years of communist regime in Romania finally came to an end when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in an anticommunist revolt, occupying the main official buildings in Bucharest and culminating with the execution of the Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife. The National Salvation Front came to power, with promises of the dismantlement of communist structures, the promotion of a market economy and free elections. As the domestic politics of Romania began to change so too did its relationship with the west and particularly the European Union, with renewed effort on both sides to strengthen relations. The Europe Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and Romania, of the other part, entered into force on 1 February 1995, establishing dialogue between the two parties at two levels:
Following the successful beginning to the formal association between the EU and Romania, the country made a formal application for membership of the European Union on 22 June 1995. The successful accession of an applicant country depends on their ability to assume the obligations of membership by satisfying the economic and political conditions that membership requires. These obligations, often referred to as the Copenhagen criteria because they were agreed upon at the European Council in Copenhagen in June 1993, are as follows:
The European Commission's official Opinion on Romania's Application for Membership of the European Union (DOC/97/18) was presented on 15 July 1997. Following a thorough evaluation the European Commission concluded that in terms of the political criteria Romania was making significant progress especially 'following the arrival in power of a new government' but the country still needed to make considerable progress in the creation of a market economy as it would still face serious difficulties in coping with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union in the medium term. Moreover, Romania had neither transposed nor taken on the essential elements of the acquis, particularly as regards the internal market and the European Commission therefore questioned whether Romania would be in a position to assume the obligations of membership in the medium term. In addition, it felt considerable efforts would be needed in the areas of environment, transport, employment and social affairs, justice and home affairs as well as agriculture. In conclusion, the European Commission stated that negotiations for accession to the European Union should be opened with Romania as soon as it had made sufficient progress in satisfying the conditions of membership defined by the European Council in Copenhagen. The European Commission agreed to present a further report on Romania's progress no later than the end of 1998. In fact the European Commission presented two more progress reports, one in 1998 and one in 1999, before it recommended starting accession negotiations with Romania and even then this was conditional on the improvement of the situation of children in institutional care and the drafting of a medium-term economic strategy. Following the European Commission's recommendation, the European Council, meeting in Helsinki on 10 and 11 December 1999, decided to start EU accession negotiations with Romania (negotiations were also started with Malta, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria). The negotiations officially began on 15 February 2000. By the time the next progress report was published on 8 November 2000 Romania had achieved the short term priorities set by the 1999 accession partnership in that it had:
However, the European Commission also identified that Romania still needed to improve the actual living conditions in the institutions concerned and there was still concern about the treatment of the Roma. In terms of the Accession Partnership's short-term priorities Romania still needed to develop a national Roma strategy and provide adequate financial support to minority programmes beyond those aimed at improving access to education.. In terms of political criteria the European Commission identified the need to improve the functioning of the judiciary and the process of decision making as well as reducing the high levels of corruption. It also highlighted that the country should build on its progress in the administrative area by developing a comprehensive, public administration reform programme. With regards to the economy Romania was still not regarded as having a functioning market economy by the European Commission which also believed that the country would not be able to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union in the medium term. 2001 Regular Report One year later the European Commission published its next batch of progress reports on enlargement in November 2001. These highlighted Romania's position as the applicant country which still has the most to do before it can become an EU member. While it recognised that Romania had made considerable progress in certain areas, stating 'Romania has accelerated the pace of transposition in agriculture, energy, transport, regional development and some areas of the internal market' it also identified that its implementation and enforcement capacities were still not sufficiently developed to ensure the effective application of this legislation. Moreover, many of the problem areas highlighted in 2000 reappeared in the 2001 progress for example:
In terms of corruption, the European Commission called for the fight against corruption to be further strengthened by the adoption of the Law on Prevention and Fight against Corruption, clearer institutional responsibilities, a clear definition of corruption in the Penal Code, a public administration reform based on the adoption of the Civil Service Act and the effective implementation of an interinstitutionally agreed policy framework. In terms of human rights there was significant progress recognised by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) conclusion that Romania is no longer to be characterised as a refugee-generating country and that basic standards of human rights are respected. Nevertheless, the European Social Charter signed in May 1997 has not yet been ratified. Moreover, while policy on child protection has been improved, cases of inhumane and degrading treatment by the police especially against Roma, homosexuals and prisoners continue to be reported by several organisations. Indeed, discrimination against the large Roma minority in Romania remains widespread. In a report published in 2001 the European Roma Rights Centre claimed that much of this discrimination continues because the government is failing to act. The general conclusion of the report is summarised in the introduction,
Clearly, the Romanian government still has work to do in the protection of minorities if it is to fulfil the EU's criteria but it has improved the situation of homosexuals in 2001 with the removal of Article 200 of the Penal Code which outlawed homosexual behaviour. Romania's gay rights group ACCEPT led the campaign to scrap the law and its Director, Adrian Coman, speaking to the BBC about its removal from the statue books said,
Certainly, it is evidence of the progress Romania is making, albeit slowly, in the field of human rights. Current State of Play However, there is still a long way to go before Romania becomes a member. According to information on accession negotiations published by the European Commission in January 2002 Romania has now opened 17 of the 29 chapters of the acquis which are subject to screening and nine of these have been completed, they are:
It has still to begin negotiations on the following chapters:
In addition to this advancement in negotiating specific policy areas of the Acquis, Romania has also made further progress with the support of the European Union in the area of human rights in 2002. On 8 February 2002, the European Union, the Romanian Government and the Resource Center for Roma Communities launched a call for proposals for the Improvement of the Situation of Roma component, under the Civil Society Development Fund 2000. This call has a budget of €927,500 and aims at developing sustainable partnerships at local level between NGOs and local authorities. The program will cover the following domains: Public Administration and Community Development, Education, Health, Social Security, Communication and Public Participation. In addition, a number of other projects have been launched in 2002 under the umbrella of the PHARE, ACCESS and ISPRA programmes which will help Romania to meet the Copenhagen criteria. These include: projects aimed at strengthening civil society; the training of magistrates to contribute to a more efficient and modern operation of the Romanian magistracy which can cope with new fields connected with EU accession; projects to modernise the transport and environment sector; and a new project to increase the dismantling of drug trafficking. With this considerable funding from the European Union and 80% of the Romanian population believing that membership will be a good thing for their country, then Romania should certainly be able to stick to its goal of completing the accession negotiations and achieving EU membership in 2007. Further information within European Sources Online: European Sources Online: Topic Guides
Further information can be seen in these external links: EU Institutions
Further relevant, and subsequent Press Releases, Memos and Speeches can be located on RAPID by adding 'ROUM' to the keyword field and clicking on 'Search all database'
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Further and subsequent information on the subject of this In Focus can be found by an 'Advanced Search' in European Sources Online by inserting 'Romania' in the keyword field. Helen Bower Commentary on Romania - one of the Central Eastern and European countries lagging behind in the accession process but still due to join the EU with Bulgaria in 2007. |
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