EU opens doors to a new life outside Romania - by DARREN ENNIS, MARCIN GRAJEWSKI and AND AURA SABADUS
EU leaders are to approve the recommendation next month. Once this formality is complete, the EU will number 27 countries and comprise some 410 million people. It will be the EU's second wave of enlargement into former communist eastern Europe, expanding the bloc to 27 members and locking the Black Sea neighbours into the zone of stability and prosperity and promising a boost to their fast-growing economies. "This is the genuine and final fall of the Berlin Wall for Bulgaria," said Sergey Stanishev, the Bulgarian prime minister, referring to the 1989 defeat of communism in eastern Europe.
Possible sanctions, which may be applied up to three years after the countries' accession, are meant to reassure the growing number of critics of the enlargement who fear the addition of poor eastern countries will undermine western Europe's social model. The European Commission said it may freeze payments to Bulgaria and Romania unless they complete mechanisms to allocate billions of euros in farm subsidies and regional aid. Bulgaria will be required to amend its constitution to remove ambiguity about the independence and accountability of the judicial system. Romania must strengthen its top court and establish an agency to verify the assets of senior officials.
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