Bulgaria and Romania had made enormous efforts that have resulted significant progress towards the accession criteria, according to reports by European Commission. Thus, they will be set to meet their goal for the accession by the end of 2007 along with Commission’s support to achieve it. However, the Commission also acknowledge the efforts and progress of Turkey to meet the political and economical criteria, but further efforts need to be made.

Commissioner for Enlargement Günter Verheugen noted that he is “impressed by the determination of the Turkish Government to accelerate the pace of reforms in view of achieving compliance with the EU political criteria”. In addition, he suggested that “the Commission is fully committed to maintaining the momentum of the negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania. However, it is equally important that the quality of negotiations is ensured. Indeed, it is important to recall that negotiations should go hand in hand with real progress made by the countries on the ground”.

Regarding the implementation of meeting the accession criteria, Bulgaria and Romania have definitely to accelerate their efforts on the political, economical and acquis grounds, in order to comply with the membership criteria. In order to achieve that, both countries should be ready to sign the common Accession Treaty by the end of 2005, and thus, negotiations should be finalized before that.

On the other hand, as far as Cyprus’s accession is concerned, the Commission strongly suggests that negotiations between Turkey and Cyprus should come to an end before the latter’s accession to the EU by the 1^st of May 2004.

Further Information

http://www.europa.eu.int

http://www.euractiv