Accession of Bulgaria

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based the own-initiative report drawn up by Geoffrey van ORDEN (EPP-ED, UK) in response to the Commission's final monitoring report on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania. The resolution was adopted by 505 votes in favour to 65 against with 36 abstentions. Parliament conformed largely to the report voted through by its competent committee, with some amendments:

-whilst welcoming the result of the Presidential elections on 29 October 2006, it deplored at the same time the strong showing of anti-European forces in those election and called on the President to use his second term to address the fears of those Bulgarian citizens being critical about Bulgaria's accession to the EU;

-the clause regarding the energy gap faced by Europe, with increasing reliance on imports of energy from Russia and areas of instability was not adopted by the plenary;

- on the matter of the Kozloduy power plant, Parliament reiterated its calls on the Council and the Commission to ensure that Bulgaria fulfilled its commitments under Article 30 of the Accession Treaty regarding the closure date for units 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy power plant. It also called on the EU institutions to keep their promises regarding the funding of EUR 210 million to Bulgaria for the period 2007 to 2008 for the closure of the Kozloduy power plant.