Romania Ends EU Accession Talks
Romanian FM Mircea Geoana said his country had finalized talks to join the European Union in 2007 with the closure of the last two chapters on Wednesday. Photo by AFP
Politics: 8 December 2004, Wednesday.
Romania has put an end to its pre-accession negotiations with the European Union, the country's Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana announced in Brussels.
"The pre-accession negotiations has ended. Romania has closed the last two chapters - Justice and Competition - this evening {Wednesday}," he was quoted saying by Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Even though the EU warns membership could be pushed back if Romania backtracks on democratic reforms, Geoana insisted the wrap-up of the membership negotiations was a point of no return. He gave a personal guarantee that his government would push ahead with political reforms and said it was in Romania's self interest not to waver.
Earlier on Wednesday the European Union has said it is hopeful that talks on Romania's accession to the Union will have concluded before a summit later this month.
The last weeks of membership talks held by Romania and EU focused on justice, home affairs and competition issues. During those talks, the country made additional commitments in the areas of border controls, asylum policy, migration and trans-border crime.
On the competition issues, Romania agreed to "strict measures to strengthen the competencies and independence of the competition council," Geoana said.
Wednesday's breaking news about Romania closing all negotiation chapters came just a week ahead of the December 16-17 summit when Bulgaria and Romania expect to receive a fixed date in 2005 for signing their accession treaties to the Union.
Bulgaria ended its pre-accession talks in June. Now the two countries face all chances to stick to schedule and become full-fledged EU members on January 1, 2007.
www.novinite.com
10 days and we will be 1/2 members of the EU.
Long live Romania