Bulgaria demands equal treatment on EU entry - PM

Bulgaria is as ready to join the European Union as the bloc's 10 newest members were a year before their 2004 accession and will demand equal treatment, its new Prime Minister said in an interview published yesterday.

The poor Balkan state is struggling to catch up after falling behind on its reform schedule and the Brussels-based union has warned it will delay its planned 2007 entry by a year if it does not quickly embrace EU norms.

Rising anti-enlargement sentiment among the wealthy bloc's 25 members has also raised stakes against entry but Socialist Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, sworn in last month, told the newspaper Sega that membership criteria should stay the same.

"The current situation is significantly worse for us today than it was for the 10 countries in the last expansion," he told the daily in his first interview since taking power.

"We insist on equal treatment on the basis of our progress. Bulgaria is not less prepared than the 10 countries from central and eastern Europe 15 months before their entry."

A messy election battle this summer paralysed the reform process before Mr Stanishev's Socialists emerged to lead a three-party grand coalition and now Bulgarian lawmakers are racing to make up for lost time.

Among other measures, they are pushing through laws to fix the slow and graft-prone judiciary, boost veterinary controls, streamline administration and fight rampant graft and organised crime ahead of the EU's October 25 evaluation.

The report is not expected to recommend whether Bulgaria or its northern neighbour Romania should be allowed to join on January 1, 2007, or be delayed until 2008.

But it is seen as a key factor on the timing of the union's second wave of enlargement into the former communist East. Brussels should make a decision next spring.

Despite growing scepticism among analysts and politicians that either country will join on time, Mr Stanishev said progress should be counted until the last minute, particularly to avoid sending a negative signal to other prospective candidates Brussels is trying to coax towards reform.

"A delay would be a disappointment not only for Bulgaria but also for the western Balkans," he said. "We will insist that our progress is evaluated not only until October but through the whole period until January1, 2007."