Romania has passed another milestone on the road to joining the European Union. The European Parliament (EP) yesterday endorsed the resolutions by which it agrees to sign the Accession Treaty on April 25, enabling Romania and Bulgaria to join the EU on January 1, 2007.
Most of the votes cast were in favour, though an unexpected development meant that not everything ran smoothly.
Two European parliamentary groups, the Christian Democrats (representatives of the EEP) and the ecologists, announced that they would demand before the plenum that the voting be postponed, though their objections were for different reasons. The Christian Democrats, the most powerful group in the European Parliament, said they were unhappy with the European Council (the heads of state or government across the EU) for promising Romania and Bulgaria a post-accession financial package without first consulting Parliament, which is normally responsible for budgetary matters.
The financial package being offered to the two countries is allegedly worth 44.3bn euros during 2007-2013 (10bn euros of which will be granted for 2007-2009). The amounts promised for 2007-2009 form part of the Accession Treaty.
The EEP demanded the vote be postponed until the Council comes up with clear explanations, saying that the heads of state or government should not be promising money to the two countries at a time when talks within the Parliament on the 2007-2013 budget were not yet over. This was the first time they have made such a request.
Another twist of events occurred one hour before the start of voting by the plenum. The EEP announced it would retract its demand for postponement of the vote, having struck a deal with the European Union presidency. In fact, the Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker, whose country is currently heading the rotating EU presidency, arrived in Strasbourg and struck a deal with the Christian Democrats, which appeared in an amendment to the resolution endorsing the Accession Treaty. In effect, the heads of state and government have admitted through the amendment that Parliament would be consulted and have a say in the budget to be allocated to the two countries. It will also have a say in the safeguarding clause that could lead to a postponement of accession for one of the two countries.
After the EEP''s announcement, the Greens filed an amendment to postpone the vote on Romania''s accession. The leader of the Greens, Marc Cohn-Bendit, said that although Romania had met many of the economic accession criteria, it still had a lot to do politically, especially in terms of fighting corruption. The amendment was rejected, however, and the resolution on Romania''s accession was passed with 497 votes in favour and 93 against, with 31 MEPs abstaining. Bulgaria''s vote went through with 522 votes in favour, 70 against and 71 abstentions.
On the other hand, however, Romania scored higher than Bulgaria when the periodical reports on progress towards accession drawn up by the rapporteurs Pierre Moscovici (for Romania) and Geoffrey Van Orden (for Bulgaria) were put to the vote.
Pierre Moscovici, the Rapporteur for Romania, hailed the result of the vote, saying that the European Parliament''s political decision showed the trust being placed in Romania, which would be accompanied by vigilance from Brussels.
iulian.anghel@zf.ro
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