Toetreding Bulgarije en Roemenië naar verwachting rond voor eind 2004 (en)
Taking stock of further progress made by Bulgaria and Romania towards meeting the accession criteria, the European Commission today announced it will make every effort in order to meet the objective set by the European Council to successfully conclude negotiations with these two countries by the end of 2004. The Commission also proposed a reinforced pre-accession strategy for Croatia.
On the basis of the Regular Reports on Bulgaria and Romania it adopted today, the European Commission made the following recommendations:
This year's Regular Reports show that Bulgaria and Romania have made further progress over the last year in implementing the accession criteria.
Bulgaria and Romania fulfil the political criteria. Bearing in mind the progress achieved by these countries, the track record in implementing their commitments, and taking into account their preparatory work in progress, the Commission expects these countries to fulfil the economic and acquis criteria and to be ready for membership by January 2007.
The Commission will make every effort in order to meet the European Council's objective to bring the negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania to a successful conclusion in 2004, on the basis of own merits, with a view to signing the Accession Treaty as early as possible in 2005.
The Regular Reports point to a number of areas where further improvements need to be made in the context of the political and economic criteria and in relationship to the adoption, implementation and enforcement of the acquis. These should be vigorously pursued in order to remedy before accession the shortcomings identified.
In order to analyse progress and to facilitate successful membership of the European Union, the Commission will conduct an enhanced monitoring and regularly report to the Council. The Commission will issue as from November 2005 yearly comprehensive monitoring reports for the Council and the Parliament. The Commission considers that a specific safeguard needs to be introduced in the Accession Treaty which would allow the Commission to recommend to the Council to postpone the date of accession of either Bulgaria or Romania by one year to January 2008 if there is clear evidence that there is a serious risk that Bulgaria or Romania will be manifestly unprepared to meet the requirements of membership by 1 January 2007 in a number of important areas.
In addition, the Commission recommends to extend to Croatia the reinforced pre-accession strategy for candidate countries decided by the European Council in Luxembourg in December 1997, as outlined above.
The Commission recalls that the European Council has decided to begin negotiations with Croatia early in 2005 and suggests that the negotiating framework for Croatia, building on the principles outlined in this paper, is finalised to that end.
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