Republic of Romania: application for accession to the European Union

The European Parliament adopted a resolution by 497 in favour, 93 against and 71 abstentions giving its assent to the application by Romania to become a member of the European Union.

The rapporteur was Pierre MOSCOVICI (PES, FR). Earlier, Parliament had already exacted the right to push for postponement of accession by a year should either country fail to take the necessary measures still outstanding before they can become member. This was especially important to Parliament, as the actual entry of both countries is scheduled to be in 20 months' time.

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. And 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.

Parliament stressed that it should be fully involved in the follow-up to Romania's accession process and in decision-making should the safeguard clauses contained in the accession treaty be activated. (Please see INI/2005/2028).