Congratulations to all Bulgarians and Romanians...

[Dreamer128]

.. and welcome to the EU. I'd also like to wish everyone else a happy New Year. [img]smile.gif[/img]

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Fireworks, VIP guests, street parties and live music are taking over Bucharest and Sofia on Monday night (31 December) as two more ex-Soviet states make the historic step of joining the EU, but many of the perks of EU membership are to stay on hold for years.

German EU presidency envoy Frank-Walter Steinmeier, enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn and several MEPs will shuttle between gala dinners at the two capitals on New Year's eve, while youth groups plan to erect a giant sign at the Giurgiu-Rousse bridge on the Danube river pointing to Brussels and saying "This way to the EU."

The event – seen as the completion of the fifth EU enlargement which began in 2004 – will see the EU's population swell from 463 million people to 493 million, its economy grow from €10.8 trillion to €10.9 trillion (the biggest single market in the world) and create new EU borders with Moldova and the Black Sea.

In many ways, the two states are similar to the eight ex-Soviet countries already in the EU club: they are poorer than the old EU15, have many more farmers, will find it tough to absorb the €41 billion of EU aid coming their way in 2007 to 2013, are predominantly Christian and have right-leaning views on issues such as immigration and gay rights.

They are open to EU-US military cooperation, sympathetic to the EU hopes of Turkey, the Western Balkans, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia and keen on deeper EU integration. Both have ratified the draft EU constitution as part of their accession treaties and will raise the total number of EU states that have approved the charter from 16 to 18.

But the new "EU2" are also very different. Average income in Romania and Bulgaria is €160 to €200 a month compared to €460 in Poland, while some people in the Balkan states live on just €60 a month. In Romania, Roma slums have worse living conditions than parts of the developing world. In some Bulgarian towns, packs of stray dogs terrify people in the streets.

Corruption is so acute and the civil service so far behind EU norms that for the first time in enlargement history, Brussels has threatened to impose "safeguard clauses" that could see the newcomers shut out of EU justice and home affairs co-operation and will force them to submit "progress reports" every six months.

In late December, Brussels already triggered one safeguard clause against Bulgaria, saying its aviation market cannot integrate with the EU because "grave concerns" exist over safety on 55 aircraft in its fleet.

Eurozone entry in next decade
The asymmetry between Romania and Bulgaria's economies and the eurozone – with inflation at 7 percent in both countries and the Romanian leu fluctuating wildly – will probably mean Bucharest cannot adopt the euro until 2014 while Sofia may join between 2010 and 2012, analysts at Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse predict.

Meanwhile, one of the EU's fundamental principles - freedom of movement – will also be put under a question mark as EU states Italy, Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland and Belgium impose restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian workers heading west.

In terms of joining the EU's borderless Schengen zone, the European Commission does not even have a horizon for the EU2, unlike the EU10 which are to join Schengen in late 2007. "Let's finish with the 2004 states first," a commission spokesman said. "There is no date for Romania and Bulgaria: nothing even tentatively floating around."

EU pecking order
Put together, the various factors could see Romania and Bulgaria fall into place as third-class EU members after the EU10, which already complain of being treated as second-class members on issues such as trade or free travel and which have reacted in various ways ranging from Lithuanian pragmatism to Polish defiance.

"We are European and we want to be good students of the EU…We hope we will not be treated like lower-class members and our team will be working not to allow this," a Bulgarian diplomat said, in an attitude that contrasts with Romania's more grandiose self-image as a major EU player.

"You know there are 2 million people in Bucharest alone. This is not like Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are basically three cities that joined the EU," a senior Romanian diplomat told EUobserver. "The reason we didn't join the EU in 2004 is because it couldn't take in two such big countries as Poland and Romania at the same time."

(Source: http://euobserver.com/9/23154)

[Bithron]

Congrats!

[johnny]

Great....30 million more bums to babysit. What the hell are they thinking in Brussels ? These nations don't have anything that comes even close to an economy, there's hardly any infrastructure, and the people are no picknick either, hell, they probably don't even know how to wipe their own asses overthere. I fail to see what the EU has to gain with the addition of countries where we send our old refrigerators, washing machines, and boxes with outdated food, so that they don't starve overthere. The only benefit i see in it is that our stolen cars will be easier to trace back, other than that it's only going to cost a lot of money. Completely useless.

[Stratos]

I'm sure you just made them feel welcome, johnny.

[Balintherlas]

Oh yea, well the USA just annexed Canada and Mexico, we're a continent now!

[PurpleXVI]

Welcome aboard, guys. I'm sure you're a good addition to the EU.

Ignore the racists, bigots and right-wingers, I'm sure you'll be up to scratch before long and contributing even more.

[johnny]

Oh yeah, they are contributing alright....a whole new form of TBC. Thank you Romania, our doctors needed some exercise.

[Bithron]

Originally posted by johnny: Great....30 million more bums to babysit. What the hell are they thinking in Brussels ? These nations don't have anything that comes even close to an economy, there's hardly any infrastructure, and the people are no picknick either, hell, they probably don't even know how to wipe their own asses overthere. I fail to see what the EU has to gain with the addition of countries where we send our old refrigerators, washing machines, and boxes with outdated food, so that they don't starve overthere. The only benefit i see in it is that our stolen cars will be easier to trace back, other than that it's only going to cost a lot of money. Completely useless.

Can't say I disagree with you...

[Madman-Rogovich]

Its definately gonna cause some conflict, these Romanian and Bulgarians are gonna be comin over here takin all my Polish friend's jobs [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[PurpleXVI]

Considering the power of unions in most of the EU, the Romanians and Bulgarians will not be stealing any jobs that most native citizens would willingly take without ridiculous concessions.

And unless we let them work and earn and improve, they'll never get up to our level of prosperity. We need to make some concessions for the weaker members of the union, the EU isn't just a device to make every strong member richer and bigger, it's a union for taking care of EVERY member, even the new ones.

So please, knock off the nationalism and give our fellow humans, our fellow Europeans, a chance. They're people like the rest of us, and they deserve exactly as much respect as everyone else.