EP Incriminates EC over Bulgaria, Romania EU Preparedness

The European Parliament has practically incriminated the European Commission for failing to provide adequate infromation and actions on Bulgaria and Romania's accession preparedness. Photo by BGNES

The European Parliament called Thursday "inadequate" and "misleading" the actions and statements of the European Commission on Bulgaria and Romania's preparedness for EU entry.

As part of the voting on report discharging the Commission of the implementation of the 2007 Budget, the MEPs voted to adopt a text stating that "the European Commission has not approached with the necessary seriousness the preparedness of the capacity of Bulgaria and Romania for the absorption of funds in the areas of agricultural and cohesion policy, and the statements and actions of the Commission in this respect were misleading not only for the European Parliament but also for the Bulgarian and the Romanian government, and were one of the reasons why these states lost funds".

The text was proposed by three MEPs from the Party of European Socialists, including the Bulgarian MEP Kristian Vigenin, the Romanian Adrian Severin, and the Portuguese Paulo Casaca.

Thus, the MEPs did reject the inclusion of the text proposed Wednesday by two MEPs from the Party of the European Socialists, Paulo Casaka from Portugal, and Dan Jorgensen from Denmark, stating that "the European Commission has neglected the Copenhagen criteria for membership and has misled the public opinion and the European Parliament about the preparedness of Bulgaria and Romania, and has thus harmed the reputation of the European Union, and the stable development of those states".

In another text, the Members of the European Parliament has also questioned the efficiency and expediency of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism that the European Commission has introduced for the first time since with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania, which was aimed to remove any flaws in judicial reform, and combating corruption and organized crime in those states.

The European Parliament has defined the actions of the respective European Commission units in this regard as "inadequate".

The European Parliament also demanded Thursday that European Commission submit to it a special report on Bulgaria's overall absorption of EU funds up until July 15, 2009.

The European Parliament did reject the proposal to demand quarterly reports on the absorption of EU structure funds by Bulgaria and Romania. 250 MEPs voted against, 224 MEPs voted in favor, and 9 MEPs abstained.

 

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