Brussels, 07/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - The EU/Romania joint parliamentary committee (JPC), which met on 5 and 6 April, has expressed its hopes that the European Commission will recognise Romania as having a functioning market economy "as soon as possible". The country has achieved "relative macro-economic stability", with real economic growth of 4.9%, a rate of inflation of 14.4% and a budgetary deficit of just 2.4% in 2003, according to members of the Romanian and the European Parliament, in their final statement. The government should take advantage of this situation to increase public investment (especially in infrastructure), and to attract more foreign direct investment. The parliamentarians are concerned, however, at the risk that Romania could lose some of its pre-accession aid from the EU, as its absorption rate remains too low, and due to its lack of efficient administrative structures.
In the field of the environment, the situation is equally worrying: although the government has already transposed much of the Community acquis on the environment into Romanian national law, the rate of application and implementation of this legislation remains "poor". During the meeting, the Romanian negotiator in chief for accession, Vasile Puscas, stated that 86% of the acquis in this area has already been transposed; the government has already taken measures to ensure its application on the ground by accession in 2007, he said.
On the political criteria for accession, the parliamentarians confirmed the criticism voiced in the Nicholson report, which was recently approved by the EP, especially of the high level of corruption. They also expressed concern about "aggression and intimidation" faced by journalists and NGO representatives in Romania.