EU tells Romania to speed reform

Romanian Foreign Minister Pietre Roman, left, with EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- The European Union has urged Romania to speed up implementation of an economic reform plan necessary for EU entry, while Bucharest urged the bloc to drop "discriminatory" visa requirements for its people.

The demands were traded at a meeting in Brussels between the EU's enlargement commissioner, Guenter Verheugen, and Romanian Foreign Minister Petre Roman.

Romania is regarded by the EU as the laggard of the 12 states negotiating entry terms. But it was allowed to start membership talks earlier this year on condition it enacted badly-needed economic reform plans in a medium-term programme.

The plan was accepted by the EU executive in July, but the EU's Verheugen said on Tuesday Romania needed to accelerate the pace of implementation.

Roman, a candidate in presidential elections in November, said that while Bucharest was successfully carrying out some aspects of the plan -- which call for non-inflationary growth -- it was struggling on others.

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"The implementation of the strategy registers some success and also some failures," Roman said.

He said the European Commission should give Bucharest credit for its efforts to date, but added: "When we are looking in the mirror, looking at ourselves, we cannot be satisfied."

On the positive side, he said, growth for this year was good and Romania's trade balance was improving.

But inflation targets set earlier by Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu had not been met. Direct investment was also dropping as the country dragged its feet on fiscal reform and poverty was increasing.

Last week Romania revised its year on year inflation target, while insisting this year's GDP growth target of 1.3 percent would be met, ending three years of painful contraction

Roman said the EU should also match its commitment to admitting Romania by quickly lifting visa requirements on Romanian nationals.

While the bloc has removed visas for 10 of the 12 countries negotiating membership terms it has maintained them on Romania and Bulgaria because of concerns about the extent of illegal immigration across borders with the former Soviet Union and Turkey.

EU member states have still to agree on a proposal from the EU executive earlier this year to lift the visa requirements.

"I understand their reluctance, yet I think it's totally counterproductive from all points of view that Romanians are so humiliated and discriminated against," Roman said.

He promised to improve border checks and control immigration flows to allow the EU to lift visas quickly.

Roman also expressed dissatisfaction with the number of areas of EU membership talks his country had been admitted to, saying it had been kept for the moment out of talks on issues, including transport, on which it was better prepared than other candidate countries.

"I think there are too few," he said, refering to the four new areas of EU membership talks Romania will be allowed to broach before the end of the year.

Romania has set itself 2007 as a target date for EU entry, somewhat later than the other candidate countries.

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