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EU Delays Prospective Members Decisions

Reports indicate that the European Union, which saw the accession of ten former Soviet-bloc states join the grouping over two years ago, has delayed recommending whether Romania and Bulgaria can also join the union, expressing hopes that both countries will speed up political and economic reforms. Both countries are due to join on January 1 of next year, but the European Commission has refused to sign off on both countries` membership applications.

The change is thought to be mainly because of Bulgaria`s poor efforts at controlling organized crime and tackling official corruption. According to published reports, money laundering is also identified as a problem, as is insufficient financial controls over the structural funds Bulgaria will get when it joins. Romania, with 22 million citizens, and Bulgaria, with 8 million, both have per capita wealth less than 40 percent of the EU average.

The European Commission put off for five months a final recommendation on the two Balkan states` entry date into the 25-nation bloc and said it could still be deferred to 2008. The Commission`s progress report marks a dramatic reversal of fortune for Romania, which had been seen as the problem country all along but has now overhauled Bulgaria in the race to the finish line.