1. The Commission in its 2004 Regular Report(1) gave
three main messages:
a) the Commission expects Romania to fulfil all membership criteria and
to be ready for membership by 1 January 2007;
b) the Commission considers that Romania complies with the criterion of
being a functioning market economy;
c) the Commission will make every effort to conclude negotiations with
Romania in 2004, with a view to signing the Accession Treaty early in 2005
and welcome it as a new Member State in January 2007.
2. The conclusion of negotiations signifies that agreement has been
reached on the terms and conditions of a Candidate Country�s accession to
the EU. It does not mean that preparations for membership have been
completed at that moment. Typically, negotiations on a particular chapter
may be concluded on the basis of a number of commitments assumed by the
Candidate Country to implement certain measures in accordance with an
agreed timetable in the period between the conclusion of the negotiations
and accession itself. This is also the case with Bulgaria and Romania.
Both countries are consequently working to meet the commitments assumed in
the accession negotiations, thus completing their preparations for
membership.
The Commission will closely monitor how Bulgaria and Romania are
meeting their commitments made during the negotiations. The Commission
will therefore continue its intensive monitoring. It will do so by making
intensive use of the Association Agreement structures and all other
monitoring instruments, including peer reviews. As from November 2005, the
Commission will issue yearly comprehensive monitoring reports, covering
all acquis chapters, public administration, judiciary and the fight
against corruption as well as track record in economic reforms. These
Comprehensive Monitoring Reports should give a clear picture of Bulgaria�s
and Romania�s preparedness towards accession by 1 January 2007.
3. As for the ten Acceding Countries, three safeguard clauses are
proposed for inclusion in the Accession Treaty: a general economic
safeguard clause, a specific internal market safeguard clause and a
specific Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) safeguard clause.
Moreover, as the period between the end of the negotiations and
Romania�s expected date of accession is likely to be long, and given the
large number of commitments that still need to be fulfilled, the
Commission considers that the Accession Treaty should, as a precautionary
measure, contain a specific safeguard. This safeguard, already agreed in
the negotiations with Bulgaria, should be extended to Romania as well. It
would allow the Commission to recommend to the Council at any time before
the entry into force of the Accession Treaty to postpone the envisaged
date of accession of Romania by one year to January 2008 if there is clear
evidence that there is a serious risk that Romania will be manifestly
unprepared to meet the requirements of membership by 1 January 2007 in a
number of important areas.
The Commission will carefully monitor the situation in Romania and will
present a full picture of Romania�s preparedness towards accession in its
2005 Comprehensive Monitoring Report that should lay the basis for any
recommendation to invoke the suspension clause, should the need
arise. | 
