MEP urges restrictions on newest EU entrants

Tougher entry requirements should be imposed on Bulgaria and Rumania, unless newest EU incomers speed up their reform process, insists a senior German MEP.

Markus Ferber, chairman of the European parliament’s largest political block, the EPP-ED, has attacked the slow speed of reform in both countries – but especially Bulgaria.

“Both countries are only partially ripe for accession,” Ferber said.

The Christian Democrat is calling for Romania and Bulgaria to be provisionally excluded from sensitive policy fields.

Both countries should be barred from decision making on justice and security matters as well as EU farm subsidies and structural funds, argues Ferber.

Ferber is also highly critical of the commission for having postponed the introduction of specially tailored entry criteria for too long.

“Commission and council have mucked around with the public by first fixing a specific date for EU accession and then softening the criteria,” he said.

With regard to a September 26 report on both EU entrants, Ferber urged the commission to put the cards on the table and to “lay open all deficits”.

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