Bulgaria and Romania push for 2007 entry

Bulgaria and Romania’s prime ministers will visit Strasbourg next week in a final attempt to secure their countries’ accession to the EU on 1 January 2007.

The visits come shortly before the European Commission presents its verdict on whether Bulgaria and Romania should join the EU on schedule or one year later.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev will meet the presidents of the Commission and Parliament on Tuesday (5 September) while Romania’s Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu will address the leaders of Parliament’s political groups two days later.

Speaking after talks with Franco Frattini, the justice commissioner, in Brussels yesterday (30 August), Bulgaria’s Minister for European Affairs Meglena Kuneva said that differences over constitutional reform, one of the major hurdles blocking Bulgarian accession, would shortly be overcome.

Despite earlier attempts by the Bulgarian government to avoid changing the constitution to lessen the role of the justice ministry in court cases, Kuneva said that new and "unambiguous wording" would be agreed by both sides.

She said that the change would be in place by 1 January, with the process set in motion before the publication of the Commission’s report on 26 September.

Both Bulgaria and Romania may still face problems as some EU states postponed the ratification of the accession treaty until after the Commission’s report.

Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland and Germany have yet to ratify the treaty. The Bulgarian government in particular has been locked in efforts to make the 1 January deadline, holding a series of talks with more sceptical EU member states.

Bulgaria and Romania’s prime ministers will visit Strasbourg next week in a final attempt to secure their countries’ accession to the EU on 1 January 2007.