GERMANY'S attitude to Bulgaria's accession to the European Union has not changed, German foreign minister Joschka Fischer has said.
Many in Bulgaria have been concerned about the outcome of the German elections last month. The CDU-CSU coalition headed by Angela Merkel, which won the most votes, is widely perceived as opposed to furthering the process of accession.

Pending the outcome of negotiations on Germany on forming a government, Fischer is continuing in office as foreign minister. He was among key European figures with whom Bulgaria's European Integration Minister, Meglena Kouneva, had talks in recent days.

Kouneva visited Luxembourg for a meeting of the EU general affairs and foreign relations council.

During her visit, she underlined the importance of Bulgaria achieving EU membership as of January 1 2007 as part of the European project.

Achieving this would be an important signal for the whole region, Kouneva said. For its part, Bulgaria was working towards achieving this signal by "excellent preparations" to meet its commitments, and by uniform political support for the required reforms, she said.

Kouneva and Fischer discussed progress in negotiations on Germany's new federal government, a process that is important both for Europe and Bulgaria, and the forthcoming convening of the German parliament.

Fischer assured Kouneva that Germany's attitude to Bulgaria had not changed.

At a meeting with representatives of Slovenia, Kouneva thanked the country for its recent ratification of Bulgaria's EU accession treaty.

Greek foreign minister Petros Molyviatis assured Kouneva that Greece's parliament would ratify the treaty before October 25. This is the date of the scheduled European Commission report on Bulgaria's readiness for EU accession.

Kouneva also held talks with UK Europe minister Douglas Alexander.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Bulgarian section of the BBC, EC vice-president Franco Frattini said that both Bulgaria and Romania had still time to complete the EU requirements by April 2006, the scheduled date for the next EC report.

Frattini said that the autumn reports by the EC would highlight the weak points in the preparedness of the two countries, but would also include their successes.

"By results, we understand the reforms that have already been implemented and are already functioning," he said. "I think that both Bulgaria and Romania have all the necessary time till the next report in April 2006 to show that they can fulfill their commitments. We will help both countries to complete the task on time."

According to Frattini, the main tasks requiring attention were in the areas of justice and border security.