| Author (Person) | Leonard, Dick |
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| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.14, 22.4.04 |
| Publication Date | 22/04/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 22/04/04 ENORMOUS progress has been made under the Irish EU presidency in the membership negotiations with Bulgaria, which has now closed 26 of the 30 main negotiating chapters. Work is also well advanced on competition policy and the three traditionally "difficult" chapters, on regional policy, agriculture and the budget. Some, or just possibly all, of these should be resolved before the end of June, when the Irish hand over to the Dutch, and officials regard it as highly probable that the entire negotiation will be completed before this European Commission leaves office on 31 October. This should leave Sofia ample time to prepare for entry by the target date of 1 January 2007. With Romania, progress has been slower, though one additional chapter has recently been closed, making 22 in all. In addition to the four uncompleted with the Bulgarians, Romania still needs to agree those on justice and home affairs, energy, the environment and services. Agreement on these does not appear to be at all imminent. The Romanians were shocked by a highly critical report, drafted by UK Liberal Democrat MEP Emma Nicholson, which was adopted by the European Parliament on 11 March. The report, an earlier draft of which had recommended the suspension of talks altogether, put the Romanians on notice that there would be no question of the Parliament approving their accession by 2007 unless a whole raft of reforms were implemented. Four issues, in particular, were stressed:
The report also raised serious concerns about child marriages, the trafficking of women and children, the operation of the law on political parties, the dire situation in the veterinary and food safety sector, and the lack of progress in transposing environmental legislation. It also expressed concern about the recent award by the Romanian government of a major contract for the construction of a motorway to the American Bechtel Corporation. This was done without any public tendering, in violation of a public procurement law, which Romania had adopted in accordance with the EU acquis communautaire. Parliament has now formally asked the European Commission to investigate and report back to it. The Nicholson report was widely reported, not least in Romania, where it caused great alarm. The government of Adrian Nastase felt that it had been shown a "red card" and took immediate action to try to reassure its critics, being painfully aware that the Parliament's assent is required before membership of the Union can be approved. The Justice Minister, Rodica Stanoiu, who had tried to downplay the findings of the report, was peremptorily sacked and replaced by the much younger and the more dynamic Cristian Diaconescu. This was only part of a much wider reconstruction of the government, concentrating on the need for a far tougher anti-corruption strategy and with a strong focus on reform of public administration. Three powerful vice-premiers were appointed, inevitably christened by the press as "the three Ioans" - Ioan Rus, Ioan Popescu and Ioan Talpes. The latter's main responsibility is defence, but he has also been put in overall charge of European affairs. It is evident that the Romanians will now have to step up a gear if they are to have any chance of meeting the 2007 deadline, let alone of completing the negotiations this year, which the European Council over-optimistically set as a target last December. At the same time, the Council authorized the Commission to prepare proposals for the cost to the EU budget of the membership of the two countries during the period 2007-09. On a comparable basis to the provisions previously made for the ten accession states joining the Union on 1 May, the Commission came up with estimates of €10.8 billion of commitments, and €6.2bn of payments for Romania, and €4.2bn and €2.5bn for Bulgaria. These proposals were approved last month by the Council of Ministers. Romania certainly started off in a worse situation than any of the other candidates, with a much lower gross domestic product and a later, and more troubled, transition from communism. It has still not been certified as a functioning market economy, one of the Copenhagen criteria for membership. It is also a large country, with a population of more than 22 million, second only to Poland among the accession states. Like Poland, it has a large agricultural sector and has great difficulty in bringing up the general level of administration to acceptable levels throughout its large territory. Generally speaking, the smaller countries have found it much easier to adapt, which may be one reason why Bulgaria, less than half its size, is now forging ahead. The Romanian government has a particular incentive to make up lost ground quickly. It faces elections, both presidential and parliamentary, in November, and unless it has a good story to tell before then it could be heavily punished by its fanatically pro-EU, but notoriously fickle, electorate. For the same reason, the Bulgarian government is determined to finish its own negotiations on time before the end of this year. It is deeply unpopular and its only hope of a decent showing in next year's elections would be to be able to claim the double success of membership of NATO (which it joined earlier this month) and of the EU.
Progress in membership negotiations with Romania has been slow and a critical report by MEP Emma Nicholson was adopted by the European Parliament on 11 March 2004. The report recommends that the Parliament does not approve Romania's accession by 2007 unless a number of reforms are implemented. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Countries / Regions | Romania |
