Romania - EU-Romania relations

Romania was the first country of Central and Eastern Europe to have official relations with the European Community. In 1974, an agreement included Romania in the Community's Generalised System of Preferences.

Romania's diplomatic relations with the European Union date from 1990, and a Trade and Co-operation Agreement was signed in 1991. The Europe Agreement entered into force in February 1995. Trade provisions had entered into force in 1993 through an "Interim Agreement". On 22 June 1995, Romania submitted its application for EU membership.

In July 1997, the Commission published an "Opinion on Romania's Application for Membership of the European Union". In its second Regular Report on Romania's Progress towards Accession published in October 1999, the Commission recommended starting accession negotiations with Romania (conditional on the improvement of the situation of children in institutional care and the drafting of a medium-term economic strategy).

Following the Helsinki European Council's decision in December 1999, accession negotiations started with Romania on 15 February 2000. The European Council of 12 December 2003 stated the Union’s determination to conclude negotiations in 2004 – if there is “further progress on the ground”- and set the objective of welcoming Romania as member state in January 2007.

In spring 2004, the Commission reoriented the accession strategy with Romania in order to prioritise the full establishment of the rule of law. As a response, the Romanian government produced a “To Do List” which indicated a series of priority measures that Romania intends to implement by July 2004 in order to demonstrate its commitment to the reform process.

The Commission stated in its Strategy paper on progress in the enlargement process (6 October 2004), that “the Commission will make every effort to meet the European Council’s objective to bring the negotiations with Romania to a successful conclusion in 2004, on the basis of own merits, with a view to signing the Accession treaty as early as possible in 2005”.

The Brussels European Summit (16-17 December 2004) endorsed the closure of negotiations and “noted with satisfaction that progress made by Romania in implementing the acquis and commitments entered into as regards, in particular, Justice and Home Affairs and Competition, has made possible to close formally all the outstanding chapters with Romania on 14 December 2004 and accordingly looked forward to welcoming it as a member from January 2007”. The European Council also considered that Romania will be able to assume all the obligations of membership at the envisaged time of its accession, provided that it continues its efforts to that end and completes in a successful and timely way all necessary reforms and commitments undertaken in all areas of the acquis, in particular the important commitments regarding Justice and Home Affairs, Competition and Environment. The report on the result of the accession negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania [81 KB] provides a detailed overview of the outcome of the negotiations.

The Accession treaty, further to the assent of the European Parliament on 13 April, was subsequently signed in Luxembourg on 25 April 2005. The signature marks the completion of the fifth enlargement of the EU. From now on, Romania is considered as an “acceding State”, and participates, since 26 September 2005, as an active observer in virtually all the committees and bodies of the EU. So far, all Member States have ratified the Accession treaty with the exception of Denmark.

The last Monitoring Report [190 KB] on Romania’s progress towards accession, published on 26 September 2006, presents the results of the European Commission’s assessment of Romania’s preparations for accession. It covers the political and economic reforms undertaken by Romania to meet EU requirements as well as its implementation of the so-called acquis communautaire, i.e. the legal order of the European Union to be respected by each and every Member State.

The report confirms that Romania continues to make sustained progress in fulfilling the obligations of membership by 1 January 2007.

Romania continues to fulfil the political criteria for membership of the EU. It has adopted key legal acts to sustain the on-going reform of the justice system and the fight against corruption. Investigations into allegations of high level corruption have increased in number without prejudicing their quality. Furthermore, two national campaigns have been started to raise awareness among the public, and civil servants in particular, of the negative consequences of corruption. Romania now needs to ensure a more consistent interpretation and application of the law. The main challenge as regards corruption lies in ensuring the irreversibility of the fight against corruption and that no one is perceived to be above the law. Romania continues to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. Nevertheless, living conditions in psychiatric hospitals remain harsh. Social inclusion of the Roma minority still requires additional efforts.

Romania continues to be a functioning market economy though fiscal policy should be reinforced to increase the level of collection of government revenue, particularly taxes. Romania is now on track to meet the criterion on the ability to cope with market pressures within the Union.

Romania has reached a considerable degree of alignment with the acquis. In particular, it has taken decisive actions to meet accession requirements in the following areas: the interoperability of taxation IT systems, the promotion of state aid discipline, the reinforcement of the administrative capacity of the institutions in charge of structural funds, and environment-related issues as well as strengthening the Romanian police both in terms and staff and equipment to fight organised crime. Romania has also made some progress with regard to the collection and treatment of dead animals and animal products. However, there are still a limited number of issues where Romania's level of preparedness for membership is not yet satisfactory. This is the case as regards the operational capacity of paying agencies, accredited for managing direct payments to farmers and operators under the common agricultural policy as well as regards the establishment of functioning integrated administration and control systems (IACS) for the use of EU agricultural funds. To be fully operational, the paying agencies still need to hire and train additional staff, acquire the relevant IT equipment and establish internal control and inspection structures. There remains a real risk that the IACS will not be functioning properly in Romania by the time of accession.

Finally the report also highlights the need to complete preparations in a number of areas of the acquis (car motor insurance, GMOs, eradication of classical swine fever…) and to strengthen the overall capacity of Romania's administration, in particular in view of the management of EU structural funds. The report also outlines a number of transitional measures that could be foreseen in case of these acquis-related shortcomings persist.

While confirming the accession date as from 1 January 2007, the Commission in its role of Guardian of the treaties, foresees a number of accompanying measures to prevent or remedy any persisting shortcomings to ensure the smooth accession of Romania. These include safeguard measures, transitional measures, financial corrections on EU funds as well as a cooperation and verification mechanism for the judiciary and the fight against corruption.

The following three safeguards can be invoked up to 3 years after accession:

• A general economic safeguard clause (Article 36): It is a traditional trade policy measure. It aims to deal with adjustment difficulties which an economic sector or area in either old or new Member States may experience as a result of accession. The European Commission may then decide such measures. They can be decided only after accession and shall not entail frontier controls.
• A specific internal market safeguard clause (Article 37): If Romania fails to implement internal market legislation with a cross border effect and this risks a serious breach in the functioning of the internal market, the European Commission may take safeguard measures. Such safeguard measures may be taken until 3 years after accession, but they may be applicable beyond that date until the situation is remedied. The internal market safeguard clause covers the four freedoms and other sectoral policies such as competition, energy, transport, telecommunication, agriculture and consumer and health protection (e.g. food safety).
• A specific justice and home affairs safeguard clause (Article 38): If there are serious, or imminent risks of serious shortcomings in Romania in the transposition or implementation of EU rules relating to mutual recognition of judgements in criminal or civil law, the Commission may, after consulting the Member States, take safeguard measures. Safeguard measures in this area may be taken until 3 years after accession, but they may be applicable beyond that date until the situation is remedied.

Furthermore, as regards the distribution of EU agricultural funds, the Commission has introduced specific rules for Bulgaria and Romania to address the risk that their Integrated Administration Control System (IACS) will not function properly as from accession. The funds covered by IACS present around 80% of the agricultural funds and concern direct payments to farmers and rural development expenditure. This additional mechanism gives the two countries time to complete the necessary work on a properly functioning IACS. The Commission will closely monitor the situation in 2007. In case of systemic problems with the management of EU funds, the Commission will later in 2007 decide whether to withdraw provisionally 25% of the payments covered by IACS. During the annual ex-post controls, the Commission decides whether to maintain the reduction.

Finally, the Commission, based on the Accession treaty, has established a mechanism to cooperate and verify progress within the reform of the judiciary and in the fight against corruption and organised crime after accession. Both Bulgaria and Romania shall report regularly on progress in addressing specific benchmarks. The first report should be submitted by 31 March 2007. The Commission will then report to the European Parliament and the Council by June on the progress made by both countries in addressing the benchmarks. The Commission's reports will assess whether the benchmarks have been met, need to be adjusted and may request further reports on progress if necessary. The mechanism will continue until the benchmarks have been met. Should either country fail to address the benchmarks adequately, the Commission will apply the safeguard measures of the Accession Treaty. This mechanism will enter into force on 1 January 2007.

Institutional provisions

As a Member State, Romania will be fully represented in EU institutions and bodies, as follows:

INSTITUTION / BODY	ROMANIA’S REPRESENTATION
European Parliament (EP)	35 MEPs (out of a total of 785) elected by direct universal suffrage. Elections are foreseen on 13 May 2007.
European Commission	One Commissioner President José Manuel Barroso announced on October 30 that he had designated Leonard Orban [84 Kb] as the Romanian member of the European Commission from 1 January 2007. He is currently state secretary in charge and EU affairs and former chief negotiator, and has played a prominent role in her country’s accession negotiations. Mr Orban is expected to be in charge of multilinguism. His appointment has still to be confirmed by the EU Council and the European Parliament.
Council of European Union	14 votes out of 345
Committee of the Regions (CoR)	15 representatives out of 344
European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)	15 representatives out of 344
Court of Justice of the European Communities	One Judge in the Court of Justice and one in the Court of First Instance
European Court of Auditors	One Member out of 27
European Central Bank (ECB)	The governor of the National Bank of Romania will become a member of the General Council of the ECB, but he/she will not join the main decision-making body - the Governing Council - until Romania adopts the euro.
European Investment Bank (EIB)	Membership in the EIB; share in subscribed capital of the Bank will be € 846 million, of which 5% need to be paid by 2011 in eight equal instalments (these figures are indicative); representation in the Board of Governors and the Board of Directors;

All Romanian citizens will be able to vote in the local and European Parliamentary elections of the Member State in which they are residents and even stand as candidates in both local and European elections.

EU assistance

The total volume of pre-accession assistance available to Romania is substantial and increasing, around € 1 023 million in 2005 from PHARE, SAPARD and ISPA. This represents a very important financial resource for Romania (around 1.4% of GDP).

The absorption rate of funds in terms of commitments has been stable at 97 % in the years 2000 to 2003, dropped to approximately 90% in 2004, but recovered to 98% in 2005 again. The government introduced a Single Action Plan in summer 2005, enhancing the administrative capacity for the sound financial and programme management of EU funds, which is continuously updated and subject to monitoring. Adequate absorption capacity of the EU funds is of paramount importance to fully benefit from even bigger EU funds after accession: for the period 2007-2009. The management capacity for the increased pre-accession funds is now carefully monitored by the Joint Monitoring Committee with the help of a benchmarking system. As an EU Member State, Romania will receive almost €10.5 billion in the three years following accession, principally from the Structural Funds and Common Agricultural Policy, and mainly for structural operations, rural development, agriculture market measures and direct payments to farmers. This means some €483 for every Romanian.

Furthermore, according to article 31 of the Accession treaty, Romania (as did the 10 new Member States) will benefit, for the first year of its accession from temporary financial assistance, the Transition facility (€50 million) in to strengthen the capacity to enforce EU rules. It will also benefit from another temporary instrument, the Schengen facility, to help Romania between the date of accession and the end of 2009 to finance actions at the new external borders of the union for the implementation of the Schengen acquis and external border control. According to article 32 of the Accession treaty, the financial allocations are the following (in euros): 297.2 million for 2007; 131.8 for 2008 and 130.8 for 2009.