Mr Olli Rehn
Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enlargement

"Statement on Bulgaria and Romania"

European Parliament Plenary Session
Strasbourg, 6 July 2005

Elections took place on 25 June 2005. It is in the interest of Bulgaria to rapidly form a stable coalition government, capable of delivering on the reforms.

Whichever coalition, work must continue in Bulgaria towards meeting all commitments made during accession negotiations. We understand that there is agreement across the party political spectrum on this. The new government should present an EU-integration programme for implementation of all pending issues.

I also note that President Parvanov has yesterday signed a decree recalling the Parliament for July 11, whilst under the constitution he had until 25 July to do so. There is thus, encouragingly, an effort to keep the preparations moving on and to limit the interruption caused by the elections to the minimum.

We also understand that there are plans to keep the Parliament working through the summer holiday period to allow progress in the key areas of accession preparations. In my speech in the Bulgarian Parliament this spring, I encouraged its members to use part of their summer holidays for urgent legislative work, whilst taking off for the Black Sea Coast only once the EU-related work is done. I am glad to find this kind of European motivation in Bulgaria.

It is the sovereign decision of the European Parliament to decide on the start of the observer status. However, representatives from Bulgaria and Romania can play a key role in informing their citizens on EU matters, as well as in informing us about their countries.

Since the closure of negotiations in December 2004, both Bulgaria and Romania have continued to make progress in meeting the accession requirements. However, the Commission's on-going monitoring exercise shows that they have no effort to spare. Ensuring compliance with the accession requirements by January 2007 will be a very demanding challenge in the next 17 months. Every day, every week, every month counts.

To that end, progress in the fields of justice and home affairs, environment and agriculture will be of decisive importance for Bulgaria.

Similarly, in the case of Romania, progress in the fields of justice and home affairs, competition, environment and agriculture will be crucial.

In June the Commission sent early-warning letters - call them "yellow cards" - to both Bulgaria and Romania, indicating areas of serious shortcomings. There were
5 such areas for Bulgaria and 7 for Romania.

For the moment, the jury is still out. The Commission will continue to closely monitor progress of both countries. The next significant step will be the comprehensive monitoring report, to be issued on 25 October.

If needed, the Commission would not hesitate to recommend the use of the safeguard clauses provided for in the Accession Treaty.