Brussels, 09/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday evening, Romania managed to finalise its negotiations to accede to the European Union, in a negotiation meeting with the EU at deputy level. The last two chapters, "Justice and Home Affairs" (JHA) and "competition", have now been closed, but the results are still to be formalised at a ministerial meeting to take place next Tuesday (14 December) at Foreign Affairs Minister level. The end of the accession negotiations with Romania and Bulgaria will then be officially announced by the European Council of 17 December.
By request of Finland (and, apparently, contrary to the opinion of the European Commission), the EU has, however, imposed a new "super safeguard clause" on Romania, which will apply specifically to the fields of competition and JHA. Under this new clause (which neither Bulgaria, nor the other candidate countries, had to agree to), the Council- on the basis of a recommendation by the European Commission- can decide at the end of 2006, by qualified majority, that Romania has not fulfilled its obligations under these two fields, and that its accession to the EU will therefore have to be postponed for one year to 1 January 2008. This specific "super safeguard clause" is more powerful that the general safeguard clause which both Romania and Bulgaria had to accept, and which provides for the possibility to delay their accession until 2008, a decision to be taken unanimously by the Council. For competition policy, the EU will ensure, amongst other things, that in the Romanian State aid policy, and in the field of JHA, particularly attention will be paid to the way in which Romania implements its "Schengen" action plan. "The negotiations are over. This is an historic day for Romania", said the Romanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mircea Geoana.