Podesta promises amendments to Nicholson Report

The European Parliament will amend the report on the progress of Romania’s EU accession talks drawn up by Baroness Emma Nicholson last week.

The final text draft to be debated by the European MPs in September, would be somewhat “more balanced” and “more comprehensive,” Guido Podesta, European Parliament vice-president said on Wednesday, after meetings with PM Adrian Nastase and President Ion Iliescu in Bucharest.

The issue on which Emma Nicholson focused while drafting the report, namely the institutionalised children, is important, indeed, but Romania has many other problems, as well.

The Government’s efforts to address those problems have to be singled out and praised, Podesta said, adding that he was to meet with Nicholson and other European Parliament officials to clear these matters up in Brussels, so that the final draft of the document should be “more comprehensive in approach.”

“We are running the risk of focusing on a major domain but overlook other complex elements in the process. The efforts the Government has made in view of EU accession so far are satisfactory to us and I am positive the European Parliament will manage to balance the final report draft,” the European official estimated.

He feels the European Union enlargement process must be “as quick as possible.” Although there are huge gaps between applicant states, all of them have to get economic, political and cultural support, the European Parliament vice-president added. Mediafax