Strasbourg, 12/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - Already used by the Council during the last enlargement, the scenario is a well trodden one. It consists of coming up with an accession treaty in order to set out the financial envelope for the first few years without consultation with the European Parliament. The latter therefore sees its rights being revoked. It is a tough method because Parliament is left with nothing less than its “nuclear option” to save its rights: the refusal of assent but the blocking of the accession process would claim two innocent victims: Bulgaria and Romania. This was explained by Spanish Socialist Barbara Dührkop and German Christian Democrat Reimer Böge at the budgets committee on Monday evening (rapporteurs on the financial implications of Bulgarian and Romanian accession). They explained that the Council had rejected the joint declaration on the Commission's financial perspectives for 2007-13, recognising the two countries' accession and its funding being assured without impacting on the multiannual programmes. Dührkop and Böge thought that the Council was guilty of breaching the inter-institutional agreement. Antonis Samara (New Democracy, Greece) spoke of “institutional rupture” and French Socialist Catherine Guy-Quint said she was sickened by the scandalous attitude of the Council “holding us hostage”. The report that the EP is expected to adopt on Thursday is expected to underline the unilateral decision of the Council on introducing non-obligatory spending into the accession treaty, without consultation and without the agreement of the Parliament, which is a violation of the Inter-institutional Agreement on budgetary discipline. The EP thinks that the overall amount for Bulgaria and Romania for 2007-13 could be around EUR 44.3 bn: 16.2 bn for 2007-09 (12.4 bn in the accession treaty) and 28.1 bn for 2010-13. These amounts will have to act as references in negotiations on the next financial perspectives, explained the EP, which insists that in no circumstance should funding Bulgarian or Romania accession impact on the commitments on the multiannual programmes.