Bulgarije en Roemenië tekenen toetredingsverdragen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Bulgaria and Romania will today take their last step on the road to EU accession with the signature of their Accession Treaties.

Full membership of the club will follow on 1 January 2007, if the countries live up to their reform promises.

The entry of the two former communist states will add some 30 million citizens to the EU's current 454 million, and extend the Union's borders to Moldova and the Black Sea.

According to the treaties, Romania will receive more than 11 billion euro in EU aid between 2007 and 2009, while more than 4 million euro are to be put aside for Bulgaria, the smaller of the two countries.

Practically, the signature of the treaties which specify the terms of membership, will mean that Bulgarian and Romanian officials will be allowed to take part in EU meetings as observers, but will have no voting powers.

The signing of the Accession treaties follows the green light given recently by the European Parliament.

On 13 April MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of both countries' accessions. However, they underlined Bulgaria and Romania still had work to do before 1 January 2007.

The Damocles sword - safeguard clause

Both countries must still complete the reform of their judiciary system and push harder in the fight against corruption.

Bulgaria has to carry on with reform of its police services, as well as the integration of its Roma minorities into mainstream society.

Romania, on the other hand, has to improve its border security and work harder on administration reforms, environment issues and the integration of its minorities.

If the EU notices feet-dragging by either of the countries, membership may be delayed by a year, by activation of the so-called safeguard clause.

And Romania has an additional safeguard clause in its contract, saying membership will be postponed if progress in the fields of justice and home affairs, and competition policy is unsufficient.

The European Commission has repeated often that the signing of the Accession Treaties does not mean that the work complete.

Recently, the European Parliament agreed with the Commission that MEPs should also remain involved in the accession process of the two countries, particularly concerning the question of a possible postponement of membership.

"The European Commission will seriously consider European Parliament's view before issuing any recommendations", Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said.

Poor, but working on it

Bulgaria and Romania both overcame communism in 1989 and struggled with the transition to capitalism through the 1990s.

The countries are poor by European standards with a per capita GDP of less than 3000 euro, which is below 40 percent of the EU average.

Latvia, the poorest of the ten newest member states, has a GDP of 4800 euro while Germany has one of over 26,000 euro.

But the EU accession process, supported by the majority of both countries' populations, is irreversible and has already made a huge difference, analysts say.

Amongst other things, the countries have stabilised their economies and initiated many reforms of state and social institutions.

The countries have showed important economic growth with Bulgaria's economy growing by an average of 5-6 per cent annually and Romania registering a record 8.3 per cent GDP growth in 2004.

Glimmer of hope for the Western Balkans?

If Bulgaria and Romania complete the implementation of their reforms and become respectively the EU's second and third Balkan state in 2007, their accession will also give hope to the Western Balkans.

Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia are currently launching their EU accession processes while Croatia is set to open talks at a later point this year.

Bulgaria and Romania started membership talks in 2000 and completed them in December 2004.

However, the debate on whether or not the countries should join the EU still continues at the national level in some of the member states.

In Germany, for example, the region of Bavaria has revolted against Bulgarian and Romanian membership, calling for better control of cheap labour, according to German press on Monday (25 April).