A report of the European Court of Auditors shows that the institution initially opposed the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union in 2007.

The court clearly stated that the two states needed more time to be ready for membership, according to the publication EurActiv.

Istvan Szabolcs Fazakas, member of the European Court of Auditors, recently presented the media an audit report on how the EU pre-accession program took place for the states in the Western Balkans region. He talked about his experience as chairman of the Committee on Budgetary Control (Cocobu) of the European Parliament in 2006, when Bulgaria and Romania were close to EU accession.

Fazakas said that a European Court of Auditors report from July 2006 concluded that Romania and Bulgaria needed more time to prepare for accession so that the EU funds would be correctly absorbed.

However, Olli Rehn, EU Enlargement Commissioner at that time told Fazakas that the political decision to accept Romania and Bulgaria as EU members on January 1, 2007 had been already taken by the EU member states, at the European Commission’s recommendation.

editor@romania-insider.com