Although Parliament has given the green light for the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the EU in 2007, there is still a possibility that the two countries will join only a year later. In about six months' time, MEPs will look again at the question of whether they have really done everything they need to do before becoming full members of the European Union. If the answer is negative, Parliament will propose a delay until 2008. The final decision is for the EU governments to take.
Romania and Bulgaria were left out of the group of countries which joined the EU in May 2004, because it soon became clear that they needed to do more work than the others to meet the political and economic requirements posed by EU membership. Member countries have to be able to compete on the EU integrated market, which means that they need to have a properly functioning market economy, where companies can stay alive without receiving money from the state. They also need to be a proper democracy, where fair elections are held regularly, judges and police are impartial and efficient and where human and minority rights are respected.
Doubts about Romania's readiness
Romania, in particular, has had problems fulfilling these criteria. So when the time came in April for the Parliament to vote on giving its permission for Romania's and Bulgaria's entry, a substantial number of MEPs felt that especially Romania wasn't ready yet. Some of them wanted to vote against the entry of the two countries, while others wanted to postpone the vote in order to wait and see. And others again said that Romania's new government, which came into power in December 2004, was finally making some fast and solid progress and shouldn't be punished for the negligence of the old one. In the end, a compromise was found by forcing the EU governments to grant Parliament the right to ask for postponement of both countries' entry into the EU by one year if it considers that to be necessary.
Concessions to Parliament
In the process, Parliament also managed to wrench back an important part of its decision rights over the European budget. In the so-called "Accession Treaty" for Romania and Bulgaria, the EU governments had laid down how much money was going to be used for these two new member states in certain areas from the time of their entry until 2009 and even later. This would have meant that Parliament no longer had a say over this part of the EU budget. Negotiations between the EU governments and Parliament failed to produce an agreement until the very last moment. Fearing that Parliament would vote against the entry of Romania and Bulgaria, the governments promised that after 2009, so after only two years, MEPs would have these rights back again and that the fact that these sums had already been fixed, would not mean that future EU budgets would be cut accordingly.
Parliament observers
As with previous enlargements, the European Parliament has invited the parliaments of Bulgaria and Romania to send "observer MEPs", who will be able to get acquainted with the specificities of European parliamentary work. They can take part in all the activities but will not be able to vote.
By: N. Peter Kramer
