Republic of Bulgaria: application for accession to the European Union

The European Parliament adopted a resolution by 522 votes in favour, 70 against and 69 abstentions and gave its assent to the application by the Republic of Bulgaria to become a member of the European Union. The resolution was drafted by Geoffrey VAN ORDEN (EPP-ED, UK).

Parliament stated that the Council and the Commission must fully involve the European Parliament in the follow-up to the process of accession of the Republic of Bulgaria, and in decision-making should the safeguard clauses contained in the accession treaty be activated in connection with the accession of Bulgaria. (Please see INI/2005/2029). Formally, Parliament has no longer a role to play in the run-up to the accession of the two countries now that it has given its assent. However, Members want to be able to continue to influence the course of events in both countries until the actual accessions take place, scheduled for 2007. Therefore, they want to be involved in a new mechanism which has been introduced in the Accession Treaty for Bulgaria and Romania and by which the Council may decide on a proposal from the Commission to postpone accession if the two countries fail to take measures required in time. Before the vote, Parliament did indeed get an assurance in writing from the Commission that it would "fully associate (it) to any possible decision to postpone accession", which was confirmed by the Council.