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The main goal of Bulgaria’s National Assembly after Bulgaria’s EU entry on January 1 2007 would be to work for EU stability and strengthening, as well as for improving Bulgarians’ standard of leaving, a Parliament declaration said.

The Parliament accepted the declaration with convincing majority. Only four ultra-nacionalist MPs voted against the declaration, Darik Radio reported.

The MPs declared their readiness to keep the current pace of work in the fields of judicial reform, agriculture and fight against corruption and organised crime.

The ruling coalition representatives said that the former two cabinets contributed to Bulgaria’s readiness for the EU entry, Darik said.

Democrates for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) leader Ivan Kostov said that Bulgaria’s EU membership was not full-fledged because Bulgaria was going to be the poorest EU member.

Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) leader Petar Stoyanov said that he was satisified with Bulgaria’s EU membership, but UDF would be critical of the Cabinet’s work.

The requirements that the European Commission (EC) had concerning Bulgaria and Romania’s EU entry were something normal, European Integration Minister Meglena Kouneva said.

Her statement came following the presentation of the EC report on Bulgaria’s readiness to join the EU. Bulgaria was going to become EU member on January 1 2007 without the introduction of safeguard clauses but under strict monitoring.

EC has been more critical when dealing with some areas during all previous enlargmenets, Kouneva told Bulgarian National Television. During the current enlargement stage the situation was the same, said she.

What was left for Bulgaria was to complete the reforms in its justice and home affairs sector Kouneva said.

EC’s co-operation was very important for Bulgaria, so that it could present a report on its progress in this sector in March 2007, Kouneva said.

President Georgi Purvanov and former prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg signing the accession treaty

The European Commission report on Bulgaria’s readiness to become EU member confirmed January 1 2007 as the country’s EU entry date.

Both Bulgaria and Romania experienced major transformation over the past year, especially between the issuing of the two EC reports in May and September European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said.

The EC report said that Bulgaria has achieved success in reforming its justice system. “Rules have been introduced establishing objective procedures for the appointment and evaluation of magistrates. Pre-trial proceedings have been improved by the introduction of a fast-track procedure,” the report said.

Fight against corruption also saw improvements, the report said. Laws on political party funding and property declaration regulations for officials and administrators furthered transparency, the report said.

Legislation dealing with money laundering was almost completely synchronised with European requirements but needed to be put into effect.

Bulgaria also achieved progress in the areas of agriculture, consumer and health protection, social policy and employment.

Further progress was needed in a number of areas including social inclusion, anti-discrimination policies, public health, nuclear energy, environment and future management and control over the distribution of EU structural funds.

Bulgaria also needed to adopt a set of constitution amendments guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary. The country also needed to provide more measures countering corruption and organised crime.

“Bulgaria and Romania have made considerable efforts to complete their preparations for EU membership since the commission issued its last report in May. Bulgaria and Romania are sufficiently prepared to meet the political, economic and acquis criteria by 1 January 2007,” the report said.

EC was going to strictly examine the progress in these areas and if such was missing, the commission was going to request the introduction of safeguard clauses.

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