Brussels, 26/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - The two EU accession candidate countries, Romania and Bulgaria will now be taking part in the action programme for implementing EU consumer policy. European Commissioner David Byrne and the Romanian Secretary of State Edward Gabriel Matei signed a bilateral agreement on Friday for the national authorities and consumer associations in Romania to take part in EU funded action, particularly in the area of training civil servants and personnel in associations working in the consumer protection sector. In exchange, the Romanian authorities will make a financial contribution to the Community programme of EUR 115,000. A similar agreement is about to be signed with Bulgaria, whose contribution will be to the tune of EUR 45,000.
David Byrne declared, "I firmly believe that participation in these kinds of concrete projects together with our Member States is an excellent path for making progress towards accession, both for Romania and for Bulgaria". The two bilateral agreements should be ratified by their respective parliaments and enter into force on 1 January 2005.
The action plan for implementing EU policy on consumers has an annual budget of EUR 20 million. The contribution of third countries to this programme is calculated on the basis of the country's GNP.