Commissie stuurt aan op toetreding Bulgarije en Roemenië in 2007 (en)

The European Commission is to recommend that Bulgaria and Romania enter the EU as planned in January 2007, but the countries will be placed under the toughest-ever safeguard regime, according to the Financial Times.

A senior commission official told the paper that Brussels has decided not to make use of a clause which would see Sofia and Bucharest become a member only one year later - despite particular disappointment over Bulgaria's efforts to fight organized crime and corruption.

"In the case of Bulgaria, we hoped they would deliver concrete results over the summer in tackling high-level corruption and organised crime but progress has been disappointing," the official said.

But in a key report, due out on 26 September, the commission will propose EU member states to apply post-accession safeguards on Sofia instead of a one-year membership delay, the UK daily writes.

The safeguards involve legal and financial sanctions on Sofia if it does not succeed in cracking down crime and high-level sleaze - sanctions which could be triggered at any time after accession.

The EU official said that "We think the best way to achieve our aim is to work with them with the threat of these measures."

"It's a better way to achieve results than by postponing until 2008," he said, with Brussels fearing that membership delay could discourage necessary reforms.

"These are the toughest safeguard measures yet. This is something new," said the official. "These measures can be triggered at any time."

Brussels could withhold cash

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso i and enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn i are expected to inform Bulgarian prime minister Sergey Stanishev on Tuesday (5 September) in Strasbourg about the plans.

Commission officials had earlier hinted that Brussels could withhold structural funds handouts to Bulgaria if cash gets lost through corruption.

Another possible sanction would be a temporary non-recognition of judgments by Bulgarian judges if Sofia fails to clean up its judiciary.

Commissioner Rehn said in Sofia last Friday that "My wish is to see Bulgaria a member of the European Union in January... but at the same time, my duty as a guardian of the treaties is to ensure that Bulgaria joins when it is ready...and that the community interests, the interests of the EU citizens, are protected when Bulgaria joins."

German ratification

Meanwhile political circles in Sofia are worried that the commission's 26 September report - which is likely to be highly critical - could derail the ratification of its EU accession treaty - a legal move which is necessary in all 25 EU states.

Concerns are focused in particular on Berlin, with the German parliament awaiting the commission report before it ratifies the text.

But the head of the Bulgarian parliament Georgi Pirinski last week received assurances from the chief of the German parliament's upper house, Peter Harry Carstensen, that German MPs would not stand in the way of on-time accession, according to Bulgarian media.