| Author (Person) | Cronin, David |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.4, 5.2.04 |
| Publication Date | 05/02/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 05/02/04 THEY might be separated by much more than the Danube but the ambitions of Romania and Bulgaria to join the European Union have become deeply intertwined. Privately, EU officials acknowledge the levels of readiness of the two neighbours differ markedly. In public, though, commissioners always speak of them in the same breath. So it is a safe bet that the European Commission will not be emphasizing the divergences when it unveils a financial aid package, due to be paid after the countries' scheduled accession to the Union in 2007, next Tuesday (10 February). Instead, the EU's executive is likely to reiterate its commitment to ensuring that negotiations are completed this year, a strategy endorsed by EU leaders at the Brussels summit in December. In theory, this should be possible. Romania has closed 22 of the 30 thematic chapters on which the accession talks hinge; Bulgaria has closed 26, including the energy chapter, which has proven highly sensitive due to a dispute between Sofia and the Commission over the safety standards of Soviet-era reactors at the Kozloduy nuclear complex. But two new European Parliament reports illustrate the gulf between Sofia and Bucharest on the key macroeconomic qualifications for membership. A paper written by UK Conservative MEP Geoffrey Van Orden points out that Bulgaria has "made great strides in its economic reform programme, so much that it is now a functioning market economy". By contrast, his Liberal colleague Emma Nicholson's report on Romania states that it "has so far not received the stamp of approval concerning the full functioning of its market economy and needs to persevere in its efforts of economic reform in all areas". It is true that the two encounter similar problems on matters ranging from corruption to the shabby treatment of Roma gypsies. So far, though, the actions of Simeon Saxe-Coburg's government in Bulgaria have not aroused passions in Brussels institutions to the same extent as those of Adrian Nastase's government in Romania. This was illustrated recently when a controversy was engendered by the revelation that Nastase had secretly agreed a deal with Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian premier, allowing Italian couples to adopt 105 Romanian children. On the surface, it appeared that this amounted to a breach of an international moratorium on adoptions by foreigners, imposed in 2001 after evidence emerged that human traffickers were exploiting lax controls over Romanian children. Dutch Christian Democrat MEP Arie Oostlander immediately urged the suspension of accession talks with Bucharest - a call that sparked an angry reaction from some of Romania's political elite. Hans-Gert Pöttering, leader of the European People's Party in the European Parliament, said yesterday his group has not taken any decision on Romania's accession bid. But Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, on a trip to Bucharest on 3 February, said there "was no reason whatsoever to suspend negotiations with Romania". While Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen has accepted an assurance from Nastase that no moratorium breach occurred - as the adoptions were already in the pipeline when it came into effect - analysts suggest that the questions the affair raises about decision-making in Romania will linger on. "I don't suspect that the government sold them [the 105 children] for money," says Sorin Ionita, director of the Romanian Academic Society think-tank. "The mistake of the Romanian government is that it didn't make the decision public, so when it surfaced, it appeared there was something fishy." Nastase has taken measures in response to the criticisms lobbed at him by the EU institutions. Last month, he announced that a "transparency committee", to monitor the use of EU aid, is to be established. It will consist of representatives of national authorities, employers' bodies, trade unions, non-governmental groups and the press. However, his party faces allegations of going out of its way to quell dissent. It is reported, for example, that a political talk show was taken off the air from a state-financed TV company at the behest of the Social Democrats, the senior party in the ruling coalition. The show had crossed swords with the government - especially after the publication in November of the Commission's report on Romania. The Commission's Bucharest envoy, Jonathan Scheele, appeared on the show and left viewers in no doubt that Nastase's spin on the report (he claimed Brussels was conferring Romania with the status of a functioning market economy) was factually wrong. Observers of Romania say Scheele is one of the most outspoken officials on the authorities' shortcomings. "Corruption is a problem in Romania which will be solved, but only when an efficient judicial system and public administration resists," Scheele remarked last weekend. In an interview published in a Timisoara newspaper on Tuesday, Guest wrote that "hundreds of Romanians" had written to him about how corruption affects their lives and that he was concerned about the lack of press freedom. Sorin Ionita finds it significant that, for a few years running, the Commission has scolded Bucharest for inadequate progress in tackling corruption, lessening political control over the judiciary and reforming the civil service. One problem is that these areas are not formally covered by the EU's acquis communautaire, the body of laws which budding member states are required to adopt. "The acquis is the main driver of government policy," he observes. "Where you don't have clear guidelines, you see problems." Romania's President Ion Iliescu, though a strong supporter of EU enlargement, has said it would take 50 years for his country to attain the same level of economic development as the present EU-15. Rather than making such predictions, his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Purvanov's most recent contribution to the accession debate was to call for a referendum on whether the country should enter the Union. His proposal has been given short shrift by other politicians and some of the media. In an editorial which queried the wisdom of spending public money on a referendum, where a "Yes" vote seems a foregone conclusion, The Sofia Echo wrote: "If Purvanov had wanted to make a constructive suggestion, it might have been better to propose a comprehensive, targeted and accessible public information campaign on what joining the EU really means." Despite their joint 2007 accession target date, economic reform is much further advanced in Bulgaria than Romania. |
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| Countries / Regions | Bulgaria, Romania |
