EU to admit Bulgaria, Romania, talk with Croatia

The European Union will sign the Accession Treaty with Bulgaria and Romania in April 2005, when it should also open membership talks with Croatia, a draft EU summit statement said yesterday.

The text, circulated to EU leaders on the final day of a summit, said Croatia would start accession negotiations provided the ex-Yugoslav republic fully cooperates with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The text confirms that Bulgaria and Romania, which missed the first wave of the EU's eastern enlargement in May, should join the 25-member bloc in 2007.

Croatia wanted an unconditional date for entry talks, but the draft proposed to keep up the pressure on Zagreb to catch General Ante Gotovina and hand him over to the tribunal.

The draft said the EU would prepare a detailed strategy for membership talks with Croatia, the Balkan nation of 4.4 million, with the view to opening them "in April 2005 provided that full cooperation with ICTY is confirmed".

Croatia hopes to catch up with Bulgaria and Romania to join the EU in 2007, but diplomats say 2009 is a more realistic date.

The launch of Croatia's accession talks had been thrown into doubt when chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte told the UN Security Council last month that Zagreb had failed to cooperate sufficiently over catching General Ante Gotovina.

The case of Gotovina, in hiding since he was indicted in 2001 and seen by many Croats as a hero of the country's 1991-95 war of independence, has been the main stumbling block in the country's drive to move towards EU membership.

On Bulgaria and Romania, "the European Council (EU leaders) called for the finalisation of the Accession Treaty with the view of signing it in April 2005."

Both countries had agreed their entry could be delayed to 2008 from 2007 if they fail to implement agreed reforms.

The EU summit will be a historic moment for ex-communist Bulgaria and Romania, bringing them to the threshold of the bloc's zone of prosperity and security and unlocking billions of euros in aid to build roads and clean up the environment.

The summit was also to open accession talks with Turkey, but those were expected to last a decade or more.

The draft confirmed that the EU would monitor strictly Bulgaria's and Romania's progress in judicial reform, border protection, environmental cleanup, the fight against corruption and ending illegal state aid to industry.

The EU will be allowed to temporarily exclude the countries from one or more policy areas for three years after 2007 if they implement reforms too slowly.

Bulgaria and Romania were excluded from the EU's recent expansion to take in 10 mostly east European countries because they had dragged their feet on reforms after the fall of communism in 1989.

EU officials say Bulgaria should face no big hurdle on its way to join the EU, but Romania is less prepared and its tight reform schedule could be undermined if recent political turmoil prevent the country from getting a stable cabinet quickly.

After November 28 general and presidential elections, neither Romania's ruling ex-communist PSD party or centrist alliance opposition have a clear majority in Parliament, with the balance of power held by independent and ethnic minority deputies.

President-elect Traian Basescu, the alliance leader, plans to name a Prime Minister from his party and hold a snap election if he fails to muster a majority in parliament.

Ex-communists demand they be given a chance to form a Cabinet.