The committee adopted the report on Romania's
state of preparedness for EU membership, drawn up by Pierre MOSCOVICI (PES,
FR) in response to the Commission's latest monitoring report. MEPs noted that
"significant advances" had been made in Romania's
preparations for accession, but they pointed out that progress had not been
satisfactory in several areas. Citing "persistent delays" in the
fight against corruption and the implementation of legislation on
agriculture, public contracts and the environment, the committee called on
Romania to take "immediate steps to make good the shortcomings
identified as particularly serious" in order to join the Union on 1
January 2007. MEPs supported Romania's
efforts to accede on that date but warned that the safeguard clauses would be
activated if the Romanian authorities were unable to fulfil the commitments
made in the accession treaty.
The committee concluded that one of the highest
priorities must be to combat corruption, at every level of the judiciary,
law-enforcement services and the public administration. It also
complained about discriminatory measures still contained in Romanian
electoral laws and repeated in the draft law on minorities, and called for
legislation on minorities to be adopted as soon as possible, in line with the
Copenhagen
criteria. MEPs stressed that "additional measures need to be taken to
ensure the protection of the Hungarian minority in accordance with the
principles of subsidiarity and self-governance", and called on the
Romanian authorities to fully sustain higher education for the Hungarian
minority by providing the necessary financial resources.
Other areas of concern included the situation of children
in Romanian orphanages, the care of people with learning disabilities and
mental health problems, the restitution of property, ill-treatment of the
Roma by law-enforcement personnel, drug trafficking and trafficking in human
beings.
The report reiterated the priorities highlighted by the
Commission, which stressed that Romania must continue the course
and pace of reforms. MEPs supported the Commission’s plan to reach a decision
on whether or not to postpone the date of accession on the basis of the
results obtained by Romania
by the spring of 2006.