Romania and Bulgaria are well placed for accession

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 25th Oct 2005

ALDE Members of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs committee commented on the Commission's 2005 Comprehensive Monitoring Report on Bulgaria and Romania's preparations for EU accession. Graham Watson, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, who visited Sofia and Bucharest last week, said: "Bulgaria and Romania are both fifteen months away from accession. If we compare the situation of these countries to the ten new Member States at the same period before they joined, we can see that Romania and Bulgaria are at least as far as advanced. Indeed, possibly further", he declared.

Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne, ALDE spokesperson for Romania, warmly welcomed the Commission's report and progress made by Romania. "All is set fair for early entry in 2007. Romania's hard work has paid off; she will be an excellent EU Member State", she said "Romanian scientists' serious and professional reaction to the global avian 'flu will help protect the rest of Europe from the possibility of a pandemic", she added.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, ALDE spokesperson on Bulgaria said: "Liberals continue to support Bulgarian accession. Our Bulgarian friends know that Parliament's assent to the accession treaty was no 'carte blanche' for Bulgaria. We expect them to continue with the reform programme and to speed up their efforts in the final pre-accession stages especially in the most problematic areas - fighting high-level corruption, judiciary reform and the inclusion of the Roma into Bulgarian society That is how they will gain approval of all national parliaments and thus secure a speedy ratification".

ALDE Bulgarian Observer MEP Stanimir Ilchev provided three examples of what Bulgaria has recently achieved: "First of all, the Bulgarian national assembly has adopted a new criminal procedures code. Secondly, it has adopted a law that ensures copyright obligations. Finally, in the field of agriculture, the Bulgarian authorities have set up a structure which will facilitate the distribution of structural funds to recipients", he explained. According to ALDE Romanian Observer Adrian Cioroianu, "the monitoring report is a fair analysis. Romania's efforts, especially those deployed in the last year have paid off. However, it is also very clear that we have a lot of hard work to do in order to make the 1st January 2007 not only probable, but entirely possible", he added.