Brussels, 01/12/2004 (Agence Europe) -By 64 to 8, with 5 abstentions on Tuesday, the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee adopted the report by French Socialist Pierre Moscovici on Romania's progress in moving towards accession to the EU. The MEPs want to see the negotiations concluded by the end of the year (which they believe is possible) to enable the Accession Treaty to be signed as soon as possible in 2005 and for Romania to actually join the EU on 1 January 2007. The EP points out that under the special safeguard clause imposed on Romania and Bulgaria by the EU, however, accession can be delayed for a year if in December 2006, the Council unanimously decides on the basis of a recommendation by the European Commission that there is a serious risk of Romania not being able to respect its commitments as a Member State. Before the vote, Pierre Moscovici said his report broadly matched the Commission's conclusions and recommendations from its most recent progress report on Romania. Dutch Green Joost Langendijk said the report was far more positive, making it dishonest. He said the EP would be making a great mistake if it approved the report, which gives the green light for concluding negotiations and signing the Accession Treaty. Langendijk emphasised that he did not oppose the idea of Romania joining the EU, but urged for the vote on the report to be postponed until the spring of next year in order to get a better idea of the situation at that time. He asked why not postpone the vote since they know that all is not well in Romania, and why this European Parliament is so positive, compared with the previous EP. Moscovici rejected his colleague's criticisms, refusing to accept talk of his report not being impartial and honest. He said his report was balanced and Langendijk's comments 'dishonoured' him. Romania still has work to do, of course, in many areas, but it has to be sent an encouraging message, he said, because things had greatly changed in the right direction since the EP's last report. Baroness Nicholson (ALDE, UK), rapporteur on Romania in the previous European Parliament, said that things are not perfect in Romania, but enough progress had been made and there was enough political will in the Romanian government to justify the Moscovici Report's positive conclusions. She said it was time to move forward now in Romania's accession process. On request of the President of the Committee, Elmar Brok (EPP-ED, Germany), the rapporteur agreed to discussing Romania's presidential and general elections last weekend and complaints by the opposition about possible irregularities when voting on the report in plenary (mid-December in Strasbourg). The head of the ALDE group, Graham Watson, urged for full clarity to emerge over the elections, noting in a press release that 'the EU must act decisively to verify the election results in Romania. Otherwise the orange banners on the streets of Kiev will be replicated in Bucharest.'
The report adopted on Tuesday acknowledges that Romania continues to satisfy the Copenhagen political criteria, having ensured greater stability to its institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect of minority groups. This positive comment does not, however, detract from the need to deepen reforms in terms of justice and public administration and step up the fight against corruption, adds the report. The members of the EP's Foreign Affairs Committee note that when it comes to freedom of speech, the 'legal situation' facing journalists has improved, but there is still reason for concern about the increase in serious physical attacks on investigating reporters. Efforts must be made to investigate these cases and ensure media independence. The report welcomes measures to date to separate executive and judicial power, by withdrawing the justice ministry's power to decide on legal appointments and promotion, but executive power in Romania continues to influence the outcome of judicial procedures, and this has to be changed by de-politicising the justice system. The report also admits that corruption remains a major area of concern. The Committee rejects a draft amendment by Baroness Nicholson whereby the EP expressed 'alarm' that so few corruption cases in Romania were seen through to the end, particularly for corruption at high-level.
The Romanian government is nonetheless invited to step up its fight against corruption, notably against high-level corruption. As a country of origin, transit and destination of victims of human trafficking, Romania is also called upon to take concrete measures to fight this plague, especially by improving cooperation between the Romanian authorities in question (border police, national police etc), and their counterparts in neighbouring countries.
On child protection, the Romanian government is also congratulated for having reacted to international calls, and for having brought in child protection standards and strict rules on international adoption. This new legal framework must now be correctly applied, the MEPs stress.
The report also supports the conclusions of the European Commission that Romania fulfils the criteria of a functioning market economy. It also takes the view that Romania has reached a satisfactory level of transposition of Community legislation ("acquis") into its national legislation. At this pace, and if it keeps to the commitments it made in accession negotiations, Romania is on the right track to achieve legislative transposition by 1 January 2007.