| Series Title | European Voice |
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| Series Details | Vol.9, No.42, 11.12.03, p4 |
| Publication Date | 11/12/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 11/12/03 EU LEADERS are set to commit for the first time to completing accession negotiations with Romania and Bulgaria next year. The heads of state and government are expected to announce, in the conclusions of this week's Brussels summit, that they are "determined" to wrap up talks in 2004, with a view to signing the accession treaty in 2005. The target accession date is 2007. The two countries have been lobbying hard for a pledge from Brussels that negotiations will be concluded before the end of the term in office of the present European Commission team. They fear that a change of leadership at the EU executive, the institution coordinating the negotiations with the two enlargement laggards, could entail additional delays. Bucharest and Sofia also want to make sure that their entry talks are not further complicated by tricky negotiations over the Union's budget, expected to heat up in 2005. At last June's Thessaloniki summit, EU leaders said "the Union supports Bulgaria and Romania in their efforts to achieve the objective of concluding negotiations in 2004". This was interpreted as indicating that the 2004 date was still a unilateral target set by the two countries, and by which the EU did not feel bound. The summit will mark the first time that the Union's leaders have publicly stated that completing talks with the two countries within that time frame is their objective too. Although a number of EU officials have raised doubts about whether accession in 2007 is still feasible for Bulgaria and Romania, the Commission's latest monitoring reports, unveiled on 6 November, made it clear the two countries are still capable of being ready to join the Union in three years' time. Bucharest and Sofia have strongly argued against being grouped with Croatia, which recently applied for Union membership, as this would delay their accession. A report published by the Romanian Academic Society think-tank states that "a catch-up strategy is not feasible for Croatia as regards the target date 2007. "Joining together the three countries immediately presupposes an accession date later than 2007. "Delaying both Bulgaria and Romania's accession, simply because of reasons of political sympathy with Croatia, would discredit the EU's enlargement policy not only in the two countries but in the western Balkans as well," wrote the report's authors, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi and Stefan Ionita. |
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| Countries / Regions | Bulgaria, Romania |
