Four ‘red flags’ left to be lowered

By Dana Spinant

Date: 18/05/06

The European Commission identified four areas of serious concern regarding Romania's accession, which require urgent action. These are:

• fully operational paying agencies accredited to handle direct payments to farmers under the EU's common agriculture policy;
• setting up a proper integrated administration and control system in agriculture;
• bringing up to EU standard facilities for the collection and treatment of animal by-products;
• making the tax administration's IT system ready for inter-operability with those of the rest of the EU, to enable the correct collection of value-added tax (VAT).

Romania has satisfied the Commission over ten of the concerns that were flagged up in its last progress report of October 2005. The four red flags in this week's report point to technical problems that can be solved before the end of the year.

The biggest success for the Romanian government is that there is no longer a red flag on corruption or the reform of the judiciary. The report states that Romania "has made progress in the fight against corruption by establishing sound structures and launching investigations into a considerable number of high-level corruption cases. Following such investigations, two senior figures have been indicted". It adds that certain progress has taken place in fighting trafficking in human beings, as well as in the reform of the system of care for the disabled and the mentally ill. It points out that Romania "has made significant progress in the area of child protection" as well as on property restitution.

While welcoming the reform of the judiciary in Romania, the Commission stresses the need to step up quality of the work of the judiciary. It calls upon the Superior Council of Magistracy to promote uniform interpretation of the law and check the quality of judgements, to produce predictable jurisprudence.

The report urges sustained efforts so that progress in the fight against corruption becomes irreversible.

On the economy, the report states that the Romanian government carried through more appropriate fiscal, monetary and wage policies in the last six months and as a result tax compliance was enhanced, corporate financial discipline was better enforced and the bankruptcy framework was improved.

The Commission urges Romania to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, veterinary border inspection posts and animal identification and registration, animal disease control measures, industrial pollution prevention and control, Schengen preparations and management of the future EU external borders.

The European Commission on 16 May 2006 adopted a long-awaited monitoring report on Romania's readiness for accession to the EU on the scheduled date, 1 January 2007. While the Commission confirmed the date it identified four problem areas which the Romanian Government needed to address before the end of the year. The fight against corruption and reform of the judiciary, which had previously been at the centre of criticism were not part of this list any longer.

• Primary Source

European Commission: COM(2006) 214: Communication ... Monitoring report on the state of preparedness for EU membership of Bulgaria and Romania, 16.5.06 http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/press_corner/key-documents/reports_2006_en.htm

European Commission: SEC(2006) 596: Commission Staff Working Document. Romania. May 2006 Monitoring Report, 16.5.06 http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/press_corner/key-documents/reports_2006_en.htm

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