Although Romania succeeded this year in receiving the most appreciative EC country report so far, the Commission warns that the risk that the country’s accession is delayed by one year remains actual, in the first place because of the still widespread institutional corruption, which threatens the smooth functioning of EU mechanisms and policies.

In the next days, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn will remit the Romanian government a warning letter with the still sensitive sectors and the steps to be taken until the final verdict on the eventual activation of the safeguard clause is delivered in March – April 2006.

As far as economic issues are concerned, the Commission notes that Romania still has a long way to go as regards the combat of money laundering, the liberalization of the labor market and the improvement of the social dialogue, the adoption of the acquis communautaire in the customs sector, the strengthening of the administrative capacity, the reduction of the number of uninsured cars, the recovery of illegally disbursed State aids, mentioning at the same time, as reasons for serious concern, the combat of corruption and fraud, the issue of direct payments to the farming sector, the absorption of European funding and the control of community spending, public procurements, the combat of products’ counterfeit and trafficking, the implementation of data-processing equipment in the VAT-collecting system, the management of structural instruments.

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