Romania not expected to end EU talks in 2004

Romania will most likely continue talks with the European Commission next year, but if negotiations are concluded in the first half of 2005, the 2007 accession deadline will not be jeopardised, say the analysts of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a division of UK’s The Economist Group. The latest EIU report on Romania reinforces an opinion on the accession prospects shared by other foreign analysts. “At any rate, Romania will have to overcome the scepticism of the member states about its accession readiness and will have to work really hard to be acknowledged as having “a fully functioning market economy” and the capacity to compete on the single market,” the EIU report shows. The number of applicants being lower in the second wave of enlargement than in the first could mean Romania’s preparations will be more carefully scrutinised. At the same time, once the European Commission has found how little prepared most of the countries joining in 2004 are, the acquis implementation conditions can be expected to become harsher. ZF