http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,491242,00.html
SPIEGEL ONLINE - June 28, 2007, 04:12 PM THE WORLD FROM BERLIN 'A Sad Example of Botched EU Enlargement' Romania and Bulgaria have been warned by the European Commission to do more to tackle corruption and organized crime. Some German commentators wonder if they were let into the EU too early -- and if it's not too late to kick them out again. The European Union gave Romania and Bulgaria a sharp rap on the knuckles on Wednesday, saying the two countries had not done enough to tackle corruption and organized crime since joining the EU in January 2007. Announcing the European Commission's <http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,491087,00.html> progress reports on the two countries, EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini warned them against complacency but stopped short of slapping them with sanctions. He said he wasn't interested in a blame game or in punishing the countries this early into their EU membership. And he praised the two Balkan states for making a genuine effort to tackle the issues of judicial reform and high-level corruption. But the commission is giving them just one more year to clean up their act, or else so-called safeguard clauses could be imposed in June 2008. These would suspend one or both of the countries from EU justice and interior policies until they met EU standards, and they could even risk forgoing economic aid from Brussels. German commentators explore the pros and cons of encouraging reform by holding out the carrot of EU membership. [...] The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "Nothing has sped up the reform process in Central and Eastern Europe as much as the prospect of EU membership. There is a magic power in the EU enlargement, which is extinguished immediately upon entry, whereupon the governments' reforming zeal slackens. The entire union then has to deal with the consequences ... like in the current case of Bulgaria and Romania." "Up to now the rule has been: once an EU member, always an EU member. It would be better if one could show countries the door, if they didn't stick to all the rules. Then the magic power exerted by EU membership could work even after accession." The Financial Times Deutschland writes: "(It is) a sad example of how the botched EU enlargement policy has helped populists and demagogues ... Romania and Bulgaria have enormous problems guaranteeing their own citizens the minimum prerequisite for membership of the European Union: the rule of law." "It was wrong to guarantee both states entry into the EU by 2008 at the latest ... it gave them hardly any incentive to speed up reforms in justice and interior policies." "The mistakes ... threaten to mess up one of the greatest success stories the EU ever had: enlargement itself." "Possible future EU members, like Croatia, Serbia, and Turkey, will pay the price for the sloppiness of the past." "In many parts of Europe there is an alarming tendency to shake two foundations of the European tower: openness and tolerance ... This has less to do with the fear of globalization, social insecurity or illegal immigration and more to do with an enlargement lacking in credibility." [...] -- Siobhán Dowling, 3:15 p.m. CET © SPIEGEL ONLINE 2007 ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." (Carlo Goldoni) "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
