Bucharest, Sofia, Ljubljana,1 January 2007 – Romania and Bulgaria officialy became the European Union Member States on 1 January 2007, which was the end of the fifth Union enlargement cycle. Bulgaria and Romania began the pre-accession negotiations in 2000, but due to the unpreparedness in the fields of politics and economy they failed to enter the EU with the 10 other accession countries in May 2004.
By accession of these two East-European countries, the population of the Union increased for 30 million citizens i.e. from 463 to 493 million, but the European GDP grew for only 1 per cent. After the latest enlargement, the EU borders stretched all the way to Moldavia and the Black Sea, and the Union presently counts 27 Member States.
Bulgariaand Romania are the poorest among EU Member States, and their population largely lives on agriculture. These countries will have to exert additional efforts in reforms in order to absorb 41 million Euro, which the Union intends to allocate for the two states in the period from 2007 to 2013. Average salary in Bulgaria and Romania is around 200 Euro.
Bucharestand Sofia were decorated with the EU flagson 31December on the occasion of EU accession ceremony. Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn congratulated the gathered citizens in Bucharest in Romanian and English language. Romanian Prime Minister Kalin Popesku Tariceanu said that this was a historic moment of joy for Romanian people that they awaited for 17 years, adding that the EU flag has now become the flag of Romania.
The EU accession was also celebrated in Bulgarian capital Sofia. Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said before more than 40.000 people that 1 January 2007 made a dream come true for several generations of Bulgarians who wished to live together with free people of Europe in peace and welfare.
Two new members will, even after the accession, remain strictly supervised by the European Commission, which will draft regular progress reports for the areas of justice and fight against corruption, and the Commission will also introduce the mechanism so as to check the meeting of benchmarks that it established. If one or both states fail to adequately fulfill these benchmarks, the Commission will change the protection measures envisaged by the Accession Agreement.
On Monday, 1 January 2007, Slovenia became the 13th EU Member State to introduce the Euro. Slovenia is the first among 10 new members who undertook in their accession agreements to introduce the common European currency, fulfilled economic criteria and entered into the Eurozone. The number of EU citizens who use Euro was thus increased from 315 to 317 million.
In the night of the `big bang`, the Euro was introduced after the two-year preparations, while thousands of citizens celebrated New Year in the centre of Ljubljana. The transfer to Euro did not bring about any technical difficulties according to the first reports.
More on the topic:
- EUobserver: Fireworks fly as Romania and Bulgaria limp into EU
- European Commission: On the eve of Bulgarian and Romanian accession to the European Union, Vice-President Franco Frattini, Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security made the following statement
- European Commission: Slovenia adopts the Euro
- EUobserver: Slovenians greet New Year with the new currency
