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Corruption blights Balkan EU bids
By Oana Lungescu
BBC correspondent in Brussels
Romania and Bulgaria are poorer than any of the 25 EU states
The European Commission is to tell Bulgaria and Romania that they can still join the EU in 2007 if they speed up reforms and root out corruption.
The Commission's annual monitoring reports, issued later on Tuesday, will show that Bulgaria has lost momentum in its preparations for EU membership.
The reports will keep open the option of delaying either country's accession by a year.
Eight other former communist nations joined the EU in May 2004.
The European Commission warns it may call for a delay unless Bulgaria and Romania take forceful action to tackle a long list of serious concerns - 14 for Romania and two more for Bulgaria.
Tackling corruption
Top of the list is the fight against corruption, which the report says threatens the EU's internal market and EU-funded programmes.
It also warns that Bulgaria and Romania do not have enough well-trained staff to control thousands of kilometres of borders and that measures may be needed to protect the rest of the EU from animal diseases still endemic in both countries.
Bulgaria and Romania also have to set up agencies to pay EU farm and regional subsidies or risk losing billions of euros.
Both countries have introduced ambitious legal reforms and improved enforcement of EU rules on state aid, but serious concerns remain.
They still have a lot to do before next spring, when the European Commission will recommend to EU governments whether they can indeed join in 2007 or try harder for another year.
Other issues of serious concern for the Commission are organised crime in Bulgaria, industrial pollution and public procurement in Romania and improving the protection of intellectual property in both countries.
Having missed the last big wave of EU expansion last year, Bulgaria and Romania signed an accession treaty in April. But only four of the EU's 25 member states have ratified it so far, amid public fears that the Union has already gone too far, too fast.
By Oana Lungescu
BBC correspondent in Brussels
Romania and Bulgaria are poorer than any of the 25 EU states
The European Commission is to tell Bulgaria and Romania that they can still join the EU in 2007 if they speed up reforms and root out corruption.
The Commission's annual monitoring reports, issued later on Tuesday, will show that Bulgaria has lost momentum in its preparations for EU membership.
The reports will keep open the option of delaying either country's accession by a year.
Eight other former communist nations joined the EU in May 2004.
The European Commission warns it may call for a delay unless Bulgaria and Romania take forceful action to tackle a long list of serious concerns - 14 for Romania and two more for Bulgaria.
Tackling corruption
Top of the list is the fight against corruption, which the report says threatens the EU's internal market and EU-funded programmes.
It also warns that Bulgaria and Romania do not have enough well-trained staff to control thousands of kilometres of borders and that measures may be needed to protect the rest of the EU from animal diseases still endemic in both countries.
Bulgaria and Romania also have to set up agencies to pay EU farm and regional subsidies or risk losing billions of euros.
Both countries have introduced ambitious legal reforms and improved enforcement of EU rules on state aid, but serious concerns remain.
They still have a lot to do before next spring, when the European Commission will recommend to EU governments whether they can indeed join in 2007 or try harder for another year.
Other issues of serious concern for the Commission are organised crime in Bulgaria, industrial pollution and public procurement in Romania and improving the protection of intellectual property in both countries.
Having missed the last big wave of EU expansion last year, Bulgaria and Romania signed an accession treaty in April. But only four of the EU's 25 member states have ratified it so far, amid public fears that the Union has already gone too far, too fast.
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Когато стане, тогава 
Член на клуба
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