By Anne-France White - 10th September 2006
Sofia will get the go-ahead to join the EU next year on time, on January 1 2007, Bulgaria’s foreign minister Ivailo Kalfin has said.
Speaking during a visit to Berlin on September 10, Kalfin insisted that Bulgaria would become a “fully-fledged” EU member in January 2007.
The minister’s comments came in the run-up to the final European commission report, expected on September 26, on whether Bulgaria and Romania are ready to join the EU.
“I am definitely assuming that the report will give us the green light for EU membership,” Kalfin told the German press.
The commission’s final verdict on the two countries was initially due in May, but the report was delayed for five months to give Bulgaria more time to tackle organised crime and corruption.
If enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn deems that Sofia has made sufficient progress on key judicial and administrative reforms, the country’s EU entry will proceed as planned.
But in case of a negative report, entry could be delayed until 2008 or Bulgaria could face reductions in EU funding.
Speaking recently, Rehn acknowledged that there had been “serious progress in several areas in the technical preparations”.
But he warned that, “we need to see further improvements in the critical areas of the reform of the judiciary and the fight against organised crime and corruption”.
Kalfin acknowledged that Bulgaria “has a big problem with organised crime” but insisted that substantial progress has now been achieved on a range of issues including tackling deficit and reforming the judicial system.
Media reports suggest that the commission will rule in favour of Bulgarian accession in 2007, but is likely to throw in a series of safeguard clauses in fields like money laundering and the judicial system, as well as possible restrictions on the movement of labour.
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