Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-15-Speech-3-178"
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"en.20041215.6.3-178"2
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".
Madam President, it is a great pleasure to be able to inform you formally that on 13 December 2004 the General Affairs Council closed the negotiations with Bulgaria. We will now start the last, very important phase before entering the EU. The remaining two years should be used to prepare thoroughly for membership.
The EU congratulates Bulgaria on this positive result, which has taken much effort and energy. It is a new step towards a truly reunited Europe, based on mutually accepted principles of democracy and the rule of law.
The negotiations with Bulgaria closed at the technical level in June 2004. This reflects the progress that the Bulgarian Government has made in recent years, which resulted in strong confidence on the part of all those involved and the ability to assume all membership obligations by January 2007. Still, as the Committee on Foreign Affairs also states clearly in its motion for an EP resolution on Bulgaria's progress towards accession, we should closely monitor the progress which still has to be made by Bulgaria. The commitments made in the Justice and Home Affairs chapter might need an amendment of the Constitution, which is a long and difficult process.
Other important areas, as the Committee on Foreign Affairs states, are the quality of border management, the fight against corruption, and the prevention of abuse of powers by State authorities against persons entering or transiting Bulgaria. The new penal code still has to be approved. Administrative capacity in a number of areas, including the agencies involved with the use of pre-accession funds, should improve.
Both in Bulgaria and in Romania, improvements in the standard of living should be a priority. The economic growth that Bulgaria and Romania have seen in recent years has had a positive effect on purchasing power, but the effects at grass-roots level, especially for the elderly, have remained limited. There are at least two more years to go before accession.
An historic step will be made on 17 December when the negotiations regarding the fifth enlargement have come to an end. Monitoring of the last part of the fifth enlargement will continue until 2007, in order to welcome the two new, long-awaited members then ready to join the European Union. As Mrs Kuneva said in October, she would like to publish the Monitoring Report on a big wall in Sofia in order to keep the process going. I think Bulgaria has made good progress, which gives us confidence for the numerous tasks still remaining.
The Council looks forward to the finalisation of the Accession Treaty with a view to its signature in spring 2005, after the Treaty has been submitted to the European Parliament."@en1
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