Brussels, 01/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the EU adopted the report of British Conservative member Geoffrey van Orden on the accession of Bulgaria. The report welcomes the conclusion of technical negotiations (which will be formally concluded at the European Council of 16/17 December), and feels that Bulgaria should be able to join the EU on 1 January 2007. Bulgaria continues to fulfil the Copenhagen political criteria, has successfully reformed its administration and its legal system, it has a functioning market economy, and is making efforts to resolve its problems with minorities, reads the report.
However, the integration of the Rom people should be accelerated by such measures as providing them with better access to education, healthcare and employment; The Rom people themselves, however, must take their share of the responsibility in these fields, the MEPs state.
More efforts must be made to fight organised crime, corruption and trafficking in human beings. On this last subject, the report calls on Bulgaria to deploy new and genuine efforts to stop the trafficking of human beings, especially women and children, by creating a reliable database of ill-treated and missing persons, and a reliable witness protection system.
The report stresses the need to treat Bulgaria on the basis of its merits, without linking its accession process to that of Romania. The Council and the Commission are invited to recognise the progress made by Bulgaria by concluding negotiations and signing the accession Treaty as soon as possible in 2005, "preferably in the early spring", in order to allow swift ratification and accession on 1 January 2007.
The Commission and the Council are also called upon to look into possibilities of increasing pre-accession financial aid to Bulgaria, once the accession Treaty is signed.