Bulgaria and Romania should be put on hold for at least one more year
Europe's latest arrivals are told to 'shape up' or face sanctions writes David Charter in the Times Online : "The welcome of Romania and Bulgaria into the European Union will be prefaced tomorrow with a warning that they will lose up to a quarter of their farm subsidies unless they meet strict targets for reform.
The two countries will be told that they can become full members of the EU from January 1 but with threats of sanctions if a series of goals are not met. Both will face demands for judicial reform and counter-corruption measures and will be told to prove within three months of joining that they have set up robust payment systems for millions of euros of EU agricultural aid.Bulgaria will be ordered to change its Constitution to spell out the independence and accountability of the judicial system, ending the practice of prosecutors cherry-picking cases, which had led to claims of bribery and corruption.
The last stumbling block to membership will be the ratification of accession by four remaining EU nations: Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany. The tough sanctions set out in Tuesday’s report are designed to convince them to sign up by the end of the year."
Given the deplorable state of affairs in Romania and Bulgaria in just about every aspect it is hoped that among the present holdouts against their admission (Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany), one or two of these will veto the admission of Romania and Bulgaria and put them on hold for at least one more year to meet the targets of reform. This would only be fair to other applicant nations, especially Turkey, a far more desirable member applicant, which not only stands head and shoulders above Romania and Bulgaria, but also has the potential to quickly become a net contributor to the overall European economy. Romania and Bulgaria in their present state of affairs represent a dangerous liability to the EU and its tax payers.
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