Remenië en Bulgarije op schema voor toetreding in 2007 (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission today confirmed that Romania and Bulgaria are making progress towards joining the EU in 2007.

According to Commission reports published today (Wednesday 6 October), the two countries are on target to join the block in 2007.

However, until 2007, Romania and Bulgaria will be under close observation following the introduction of a so-called safeguard clause that gives the EU the possibility of delaying entry for a year, if commitments made by the countries during negotiations are not met.

Wednesday's reports say that both countries have achieved "satisfactory" results in adopting the EU legislation. Both countries have received the status of functioning market economy and they continue to respect the EU's political criteria.

But the two still need to improve their administrative capacity and fight corruption.

While in Bulgaria corruption is still a problem in spite of measures recently put into place, in Romania this is a "serious problem" as corruption continues to be widespread.

Romania also continues to lag behind in other areas.

Bulgaria finished negotiating the terms of accession in June, while Romania has two difficult chapters to negotiate.

Romania still discussing

One of the chapters under discussion with Romania is justice and home affairs which implies a good deal of reforms that are still to be implemented by the country.

The independence of the judiciary, in spite of significant pressure from the Commission in the past three years, is still not a reality.

However, Romanian chief negotiator Vasile Puscas told the press that Romania is determined to finish all chapters of negotiations and finish talks by the end of the year. He also excludes the possibility of a delay.

Although the Brussels report does not recommend a delay, no EU official was ready to say that there would definitely not be one.

"This is still under discussion, we have several options and there is a good opportunity that we can do it". said EU enlargement commissioner Günter Verheugen.