Bulgaria: membership application and partnership, 14 December 1995

PURPOSE : to propose a revised Accession Partnership with Bulgaria. CONTENT : to recall, the Accession Partnerships are policy documents adopted by the Council of the European Union, on a proposal by the Commission, which identify priorities on which the candidate countries should focus their efforts in order to comply with the EU accession criteria. The pre-accession financial assistance provided by the EU supports the efforts of the candidates to meet these objectives. The first Accession Partnership for Bulgaria was decided in March 1998 with updates approved in December 1999 and January 2002. On announcing the Roadmap for Bulgaria's accession to the EU at the end of 2002, the Commission stated that it would propose a revised Accession Partnership in light of the findings of the 2002 Regular Report and the contents of the Roadmap. The revised Accession Partnership develops in more detail the short and medium term issues identified in the Roadmap. The main priorities it highlights include continuing reform of the judicial system and public administration, and pursuit of economic reform. The priorities as identified are developed within the Accession Partnership and short and medium term issues are detailed in order to provide a revised basis for the programming of pre-accession assistance to Bulgaria. �