Monitoring report on the state of preparedness for EU membership of Bulgaria and Romania

Contents
	Introduction
	Summary of monitoring fidings
	Bulgaria
	Romania
	Safeguards and other measures
	Tools applicable to all Member States
	Tools based on the Accession Treaty
	Accopmanying measures foreseen for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania
	Judiciary and the fight against corruption
	Agricultural funds
	Food safety
	Aviation safety
	Conclusion
	Country Annex Bulgaria
	country Annex Romania

These tools consist of the necessary preventive or remedial actions which the Commission is obliged to use to address any shortcoming which may impede the proper functioning of EU policies. These include safeguard measures, financial corrections of EU funds, competition policy measures and infringement procedures³. They are based on the acquis.

Moreover, for some aspects related to human rights, the Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) will continue its monitoring after accession of both countries with respect to the fight against racism and related discrimination and to support of positive integration of minority communities. The scope of the EUMC, which covers all Member States, has already been extended to Bulgaria and Romania.

Safeguard measures based on the acquis can be invoked upon accession, as for any Member State, in many policy areas (transport, food safety, aviation safety etc). Such measures are applied as long as the underlying problems exist. The decision making procedures depend on the relevant EU legislation and may therefore vary across different policy areas. For example,the acquis contains several measures to ensure the food safety within the EU. For each of the animal or plant diseases, different Directives specify measures to be taken in case such a disease occurs in a current or new Member State. Such measures often consist of prohibitions to export certain animals or products from a Member State to the internal market until the disease is under control or eradicated. The Commission can decide on food safety measures after having received the favourable opinion of the EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal health by qualified majority voting.

The Commission may apply safeguard measures in relation to the EU funds, including financial corrections. Any shortcomings on the proper use of EU funds may delay the disbursement of funds or allow the Commission to claim financial corrections (i.e. reduction on future payments) or to recover payments.
In addition, when the acquit is not properly applied in a Member State, private and public parties can refer to national courts to enforce EC law, and, in the final stage, to the European Court of Justice, and their government risks being condemned.

For agricultural funds, the acquis provides different types of controls. Firstly, Member States are obliged to have accredited and efficient paying agencies to ensure the sound management and control of agricultural expenditure. Secondly, Member States are also required to operate functioning control systems, in particular a functioning integrated administrative and control system (IACS), for the direct payments to farmers and parts of rural development expenditures, notably in order to avoid fraudulent practices and irregular payments. Thirdly, if Member States fail to operate such control systems properly, the Commission, based on the acquis, decides ex-post on financial corrections through clearance of accounts procedures. In that case, the Commission refuses to finance parts of the agricultural expenditure. Finally, if the Commission concludes that there is a non-respect of Community rules or an abusive use of EU funds, it may suspend or temporarily reduce the payment of advances on a case-by-case basis.

For structural funds, the acquis provides four types of control that may lead to financial corrections. Firstly, every Member State needs to submit operational programmes indicating how the funds will be spent within each sector. These programmes have to be approved by the Commission before any payments can be made. No advance payments can be made until the Commission formally adopts the programmes. Secondly, any Member State needs to prove that it has established adequate management, certification and audit authorities. If the Commission does not consider these authorities to function efficiently, no interim payments will be made. Thirdly, the corresponding disbursement of funds for these programme or programmes can be interrupted, suspended or cancelled if, on the basis of Commission findings, the Commission suspects or detects cases of irregularities or fraud including corrupt practices. Finally, further to this range of safeguard measures to the EU funds, financial corrections can take place in case of individual or systemic irregularities are found during the regular ex-post controls.

______________
3 In addition, there also two types of transitional arrangements, which are also outlined below.