Europees Parlement laat nog geen Bulgaarse en Roemeense waarnemers toe (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Parliament has decided to delay inviting observer MPs from Bulgaria and Romania in a decision some see as a case of double standards.

Sofia and Bucharest had been expecting to send observers to Brussels directly after signing the accession treaty, which lays out the exact terms of membership and which was signed two weeks ago.

The more than 50 observers from the two countries will now only come to Brussels in January next year, or, if Romania and Bulgaria fall back on their EU promises, in January 2007, following a decision by the leaders of the parliament's political groups on Wednesday (4 May).

The ten countries that joined the EU last May sent observers to the European Parliament directly after signing their accession treaties.

Some see the decision as symbolic of the overall reluctance of the EU to admit the two countries, both of which missed out on the last round of enlargement because they were lagging too far behind on EU reforms.

"This decision suggests more than a hint of reluctance to welcome Romania and Bulgaria into the EU", said liberal leader Graham Watson.

"Where there is a will there is a way and in this instance the political will was manifestly lacking to admit the observers following the signing of their accession treaties", he said blaming reluctance by the two biggest groups in the parliament, the centre-right EPP and the Socialists.

However, those present at the vote on Wednesday say the decision to postpone the oberservers was only taken because of space and translation problems.

The parliament's system is already bursting at the seams trying to manage 21 languages and coping with two new languages would be too much.

Enlargement fatigue

But Romania and Bulgaria's accession to the EU has simply not garnered as much enthusiasm as the expansion mainly to eastern Europe last year.

At the signature of their accession treaties on 25 April, very few EU leaders were present - in stark contrast to the ceremony for the ten two years ago.

For first the time also, the EU has inserted a clause into their treaties with the option to delay the expected 2007 membership until 2008 if reforms in areas such as the judiciary system are not carried out thoroughly enough.

There is also concern that there may be some difficulty in getting their accession treaties ratified by all 25 member states.

Germany represents a particular problem.

In an interview with Spiegel Online on Thursday (5 May), Edmund Stoiber, the conservative head of Bavaria, called for a pause in enlargement saying that following the move from 15 to 25 states last year the club needs a period of consolidation.

He also pledged that if the Christian Democrats get into power after next year's general elections, they would do everything possible to make sure Turkey only gets a privileged partnership with the EU and not full membership.