Accession of Romania

 The committee adopted the own-initiative report drawn up by Pierre MOSCOVICI (PES, FR) in response to the Commission's final monitoring report on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania. The committee welcomed the accession of Romania on 1 January 2007. The Romanian authorities were congratulated on the extensive progress made in a short space of time, but they were also reminded to keep up the pace of reform after accession. MEPs encouraged the other EU Member States to open up their borders to Romanian workers, "in accordance with the full spirit of the right of free movement of workers guaranteed by Community law".

As regards the political criteria, the committee recognised the progress made on minorities, but said that the law on minorities should be approved as soon as possible and that efforts in areas such as the integration of minorities, child protection and the treatment of the mentally handicapped should be stepped up. With regard to the Roma minority, Romania was urged to consolidate the reforms it has undertaken and to ensure adequate funding. On the Hungarian minority, MEPs said that adequate funding should be provided for the improvement of education standards.

The committee noted that the Commission had also evoked the need for further progress in the fight against corruption, the absorption and management of EU agricultural and structural funds and the application of EU legislation on food safety. Moreover, Romania should speed up the processing of claims relating to the restitution of properties confiscated by the communist regime and should make further efforts in protecting the environment, with special reference to large-scale mining projects such as Rosia Montana. Finally, MEPs insisted that the Commission should report systematically to Parliament on the progress made by Romania in the coming months and that Parliament should be closely associated in the monitoring mechanism after accession.