EU: The EU may withhold financial aid from Bulgaria and Romania even if they join the Union next January because they have failed to implement certain key reforms.
A draft report prepared by the European Commission shows that the two countries have not yet set up payment agencies for farm subsidies. Bulgaria has also failed to set up a payment agency to help disburse billions of euro worth of regional aid. "If this is not remedied, the commission may take measures to . . . withhold payments to Bulgaria and Romania," said the report.
The report does not contain a final recommendation on whether the two states should join the EU as scheduled on January 1st, 2007 or if their entry date should be postponed until 2008. The conclusions on this crucial issue are left blank in the draft report, which will be amended and published on Tuesday following a debate by EU commissioners.
It is expected that the commission will recommend undertaking a further review of Bulgaria and Romania's readiness for accession in the autumn before giving the green light for entry in January 2007. Commission sources believe that this will keep the pressure on each state to implement further reforms over the next five months.
The draft report highlights that substantial progress has been made by both countries since the commission published its last monitoring report in October 2005. Romania has reduced the number of red flags - the symbol used by the commission to signify a major problem in a specific policy area - from 14 to four, while Bulgaria has reduced the number of red flags from 16 to six.
All the areas of concern relating to Romania are technical matters, but Bulgaria has been told it must make urgent progress in prosecuting organised crime.
"Tangible results in investigating and prosecuting organised crime networks . . . [ and] more efficient and systematic implementation of laws from the fight against fraud and corruption" are needed, it said. "Indictments, prosecutions, trials, convictions and dissuasive sentences remain rare in the fight against fraud and corruption."
The findings in the report confirm that Romania, which was previously trailing Bulgaria in its readiness for EU accession, is considered to be ahead of its neighbour in terms of its preparedness to join the EU. Earlier this week the Bulgarian prime minister Sergei Stanishev warned the EU not to humiliate it by postponing its date to join.