EU: The European Commission will today recommend that Bulgaria and Romania should be allowed to join the EU on January 1st, 2007. However, both states will be told they could face sanctions and lose hundreds of millions of euro in EU funding if they fail to implement promised reforms.
The monitoring report prepared by enlargement commissioner Oli Rehn will cite a number of specific areas where the commission reserves the right to take appropriate measures unless both countries "take immediate corrective action".
The possible sanctions include suspending a portion of structural or farm aid, not recognising court decisions or allowing the states to export certain products to the EU.
The proposed "safeguard measures" are the toughest imposed to date on new members of the Union, reflecting growing scepticism with enlargement in many EU states.
Commission president José Manuel Barroso said yesterday Bulgaria and Romania should be the last candidate countries to join the EU before a wholesale reform of the EU's institutions were completed. His comments could mean that Croatia's bid to join the Union becomes tied to the success of future talks on the stalled EU constitution.
The commission report on Romania and Bulgaria has been eagerly awaited by both countries, which initially were scheduled to be part of the May 2004 enlargement. The slow pace of reform caused EU entry to be postponed then; they could have faced a one-year delay this time if the commission judged they had not done enough.
However, despite criticism in the current monitoring report, the commission is expected today to sign off on Mr Rehn's recommendation that they should join next year. The report, however, will criticise Bulgaria for not introducing effective laws to combat corruption and fraud.
It will also call for more progress in the fight against organised crime and notes that no one has yet been convicted for the scores of contract killings perpetrated by the Bulgarian mafia in recent years.
In Romania's case, the commission will highlight continuing problems with the set-up of the payment agencies that will disburse billions of euro in funding. For example, there is still no system for animal registration, which is required to pay EU farm aid.
The government also needs to set up facilities to process animal waste to prevent mad cow disease, says the report, which will be presented to the European Parliament today.
EU leaders are expected to adopt the report at a summit in December.