EU enlargement: Bulgaria and Romania excluded

Bulgaria and Romania have been ruled out of any possible adherence plan to the European Union in the first wave in 2004.

Guenter Verheugen, the European Commissioner for Expansion, stated on Friday that Romania and Bulgaria will “absolutely” not be part of the first wave of central and eastern European countries joining the European Union in 2004.

The commissioner was speaking at the banking congress in Frankfurt. He made it clear that although the French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine had declared that these two countries might be part of an early adhesion process, there was no possibility due to their economic and environmental policy record.

Guenter Verheugen said that a possible adhesion of 12 member states based only on political and strategic premises was not acceptable to the majority of the 15 EU member states.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru