Rumäniens Beitritt zur EU – 2007 oder 2008?
Romania’s Accession to the EU- 2007 or 2008?

Summary/Abstract: In December 2004, Romania concluded its accession negotiations with the European Union, the Accession Treaty with Romania and Bulgaria was signed on April 24, 2005. In order to cope with the difficulties encountered by the two Southeast European countries on their path to integration, the European Commission introduced a new safeguard procedure that will enable the European Union to trigger special sanction mechanisms in case one or both countries will be considered to have missed their obligations under the 2005 Treaty. In this case, their accession will be postponed by one year from 1 January 2007 to 2008. While analyzing the inherent structural and political problems encountered by Romania on its road to transposing the EU acquis communautaire, the author doubts whether delaying the country’s access to the EU will actually benefit Romania and/or the EU-25. She argues that, due to the specifics of the latest wave of EU enlargement of 12 countries, a possible one-year postponement will fail to benefit to the current crisis-ridden EU member countries, while being clearly counterproductive for Romania.

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