Ter voorbereiding op de EU-toetreding sturen Bulgarije en Roemenië waarnemers naar het Europees Parlement (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Over a year before the EU is set to take on Bulgaria and Romania, 53 observers from the two countries are joining the European Parliament on Monday (26 September).

The observers will follow plenary sessions and committee or political group meetings, but they will have no voting rights.

MEPs postponed their arrival to the parliament in late April, due to concerns about the readiness of Romania and Bulgaria to join the EU as scheduled.

Just before the summer break, centre-right deputies tried to put off the launch of the observers' mission in the parliament once again - arguing the institution is not technically prepared for their arrival.

Supporters of the move said the parliament should wait until the autumn report by the European Commission on how Sofia and Bucharest are proceeding with their EU reforms.

This report could still trigger a "safeguard clause" postponing their entry by another year, which - some MEPs argue- could cause an awkward situation on both sides, with observers either asked to stop attending the parliament or staying there for over two years.

However, their initiative was overwhelmingly rejected in July.

Ready to be squeezed in

The observers will get the same financial support from the parliament as their colleagues from the current EU member states.

This includes a flat-rate allowance of €268 for each day of participation at any parliamentary activity, as well as reimbursement of their travel expenses.

However, they will have to share offices, in some cases in Brussels as many as eight people will occupy the same room.

On top of this, they will be advised not to stay in the plenary chamber at the time of the voting, as there are not enough seats for them.

"During the debates, observers are free to occupy seats which are not occupied by MEPs", a Parliament official said.

He added that the experience suggests that "the observers' enthusiasm will last for a couple of days and then they will decide not to attend all the debates".

"So, even if we don't have enough seats for everyone, it is unlikely that all would be occupied at some point and they would be left unseated".

Which group gets the most observers?

The translation into Bulgarian and Romanian will only be provided for plenary sessions on Wednesdays when commission and council representatives are also present, although the political groups can ocassionally apply for extra services for some other types of meetings.

Altogether, observers will join the three main European parties.

The two biggest groups - the centre-right and the socialists - will both get 12 out of the 35 colleagues from Romania, with liberals receiving five observers. The remaining six Romanian deputies will not join any political group.

By contrast, seven (out of 18) Bulgarians will join the liberal group, with seven deputies joining the socialist faction, four the centre-right group and one observer staying non-attached.