Articles in category Politics

The Parliament of Luxembourg has ratified unanimously Bulgaria and Romania’s EU accession treaty, Europe.bg told FOCUS News Agency. The debates lasted for two hours. Representatives of all the five...

The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) hails the ratification of Romania's and Bulgaria's Accession Treaty to the EU by the Irish Senate. The event marks the...

Few weeks ahead of taking over the EU Rotating Presidency, Finland has sent off a signal of good will to Sofia and Bucharest by ratifying their Accession Accord....

The Dutch Senate has approved the Treaty on the EU accession of Bulgaria and Romania late on Tuesday, the country's embassy to Sofia informed. The decision of the...

The European Commission’s report on Tuesday signaled that Romania has made limited progress in public administration, budget revenues are still quite low and the privatization process is slow. Below are the strong and weak points that the EC pointed out in the report, according to the website of the EC Delegation in Romania. AREAS OF PROGRESS Political: Significant progress has been made in implementing the reform of the justice. The administrative capacity of the courts has steadily increased. The legislative framework to fight corruption has been reinforced and is being...

Romania's EU treaty was ratified yesterday with a majority of votes by the Swedish Parliament, making Sweden the 16th state to green light Romania's accession.
"The unanimous vote in favor of the accession treaty's ratification is additional proof of the support Sweden gives to Romania's accession, as well as recognition of the progress made by Romania," said a release from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The ministry thanked the Swedish authorities for the support given for the successful finalization of the accession process, said the release.

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Belgian House of Representatives ratified Friday Bulgaria and Romania’s EU accession treaty, the press office of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry announced.
The Belgian MPs voted 115 -14 with one abstention to back the two countries’ accession. All members of the Flemish extreme nationalists from Vlaams Belang were against the ratification.
In 2004 the MPs from Vlaams Belang did not back the EU accession of the ten new countries.

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Minister for Europe Douglas Alexander welcomed the UK's formal ratification of Bulgaria and Romania's treaty of accession on Wednesday 5 April.

Douglas Alexander MP said:

'The UK has been a strong supporter of Bulgaria and Romania's European Union membership aspirations. The Prime Minister was the first European leader to call for the opening of accession negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania in 1999. Both countries have come a long way since then. The prospect of EU membership has helped Bulgaria and Romania make the political and economic reforms necessary to meet the criteria necessary for full membership.

'I am delighted to announce that the UK formally ratified Bulgaria and Romania’s Accession Treaty. This is a clear indication of our strong support for Bulgaria and Romania's accession. The UK will continue to provide constructive advice and active support to Bulgaria and Romania in their efforts to accede to the EU on 1 January 2007.'

Notes to Editors

1. EU Member States signed an Accession Treaty with Bulgaria and Romania in Luxembourg on 25 April 2005. The Treaty set the terms on which both states will accede to the European Union. For the Treaty to come into force, all of the signatories to the Accession Treaty have to have ratified it by 31 December 2006.

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Belgium's senate ratified Bulgaria and Romania's EU accession treaty, with 52 of the senators present supporting the treaty and only 8 were against, all from the Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang (VB), Sofia News Agency reports.

With Lithuania that also ratified the treaty on Thursday, the number of countries supporting Bulgaria and Romania's EU accession has risen to 16.

Belgian senator Francois Roelants du Vivier presented the treaty for voting, expressing his belief that both countries were able to overcome the final obstacles and become full-flagged EU members on January 1, 2007.

His colleague Karim Van Overmeire, one of the senators that voted against, said that Bulgaria had indeed undertaken very strict measured in criticized areas and as a whole answers EU criteria.

Romania on the other hand, still had serious problems with corruption, he said.

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Poland's Senate, the higher chamber in the country's bicameral parliament, ratified Bulgaria and Romania's EU Accession Treaty late on March 30 amid high expectations of a positive outcome in both Sofia and Bucharest.

A total of 71 senators in the 100-seat senate supported the treaty.

The nod of approval by the Senate is expected to be followed by the presidential approval in the next few days.

Seventeen out of twenty-five member states have completed the ratification procedure of Bulgaria and Romania's accord with the EU so far. Poland, Lithuania and Belgium were the latest members states to give the green light to the treaty.

Sofia is hoping that all member states will ratify its EU accession treaty before the European Commission monitoring report in the spring of 2006, fearing a delay in its accession due to a delay in the ratifications.

If the notification of the ratification in all member states is not completed by 31 December 2006, the accession treaty will not enter into force and it will have to be renegotiated.

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