of the EU was signed on December 13 in the Portuguese
capital, with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev leading
Bulgarias representatives. The document was formally
signed by European heads of state and/or governments
at the historic Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon, opening the
way for the ratification and confirmation process to get
under way in 2008. Only with full approval can the treaty
take effect as the Basic Law of the community bloc.
Photos: GOVERNMENT.BG
Bulgaria and Romania caught the last train with their January 1 2007 accession to the European Union. Amid a growingly pervasive enlargement fatigue, the EU pledged to retain the current EU composition as is. If for the mere reason it recognised the need to free up intellectual and energy resources to mend the deficiencies of what is growingly seen as an inefficient EU.
And 2007 could well be named the year of EU introspection.
The time was ripe. As is clear from the growingly concerted string of actions on behalf of EU member states, further delay would only come in support of pessimists theory that the EU was to repeat the fate of mastodons. Namely, for failure to timely adapt the EU was doomed to extinction, the pessimists line runs.
Developments in the past few years augmented the numbers of pessimists. With the big-bang enlargement in 2004 and 2007, the Union found itself with a legislative, executive and judiciary tailored to an EU15. At the same time, there was the paradoxic reluctance to re-energise these structures with timely reforms to refit them to size. In what was the most vivid illustration of this fact, the Dutch and the French had said no to a draft constitution befitting an expanded EU. It was indicative of the general denial of the new ideas that would make the EU take decisions faster and sustain the Union as the important player on the international scene.
Yet the year 2007 represented an important turnaround in this respect.
In the middle of December, the European Council, comprising all EU heads of state and government, showed the rare unity in signing of the Reform Treaty in Lisbon.
France, the originator of the constitutional deadlock with the proposal for a reform treaty instead of an entirely new constitution, is now eager to be the front-runner in the reform treatys passage. It pledged to be the first country to ratify the document and, thus, ensure that the Reform Treaty is operational already in 2009.
To ensure that its passage is not blocked, almost all EU member states shunned the need to pass treaty endorsement referenda. For the time being, only Ireland is likely to hold a referendum to this effect.
Most importantly, the treaty is set to vest the Union with the power to pass decisions faster. Through the double majority system, the Union will drop the need to unanimously vote on all decisions. The European Commission is also set to undergo changes. The term of the president of the EC is to be extended from six months to 2.5 years. Besides, not all countries will have a commissioner. Commissioners from individual countries will be appointed on the rotating principle.
The EU will also be having a single official speaking on foreign policy issues to avoid overlap in offices.
The pan-European consensus that it was high time it reformed prompted EU leaders agree to small concessions in the run-up to the treaty signing. Bulgaria, the first EU country to use the Cyrillic alphabet, has pushed through the transliteration of the euro as evro in the Bulgarian language. Poland succeeded in passing the so-called Giannina mechanism, which allows a small pool of states with an insufficient number of votes to delay decisions until a later date.
The treaty issue apart, 2007 was the year when the EU assumed a more resolute tone on energy issues. In mid-2007, the EC put up its draft energy strategy, which was aimed at giving the first definitive counter-action to Russias bid for energy dominance. The strategy aimed at policing the segregation of crude and gas production and distribution activities. Though it did meet resistance from France and Germany, in particular, in a bid to protect its own energy giants, it was interpreted as the first substantial attempt toward energy source diversification.
The EU also greenlighted the expansion of the Schengen zone to the 10 member states to have joined in 2004.
The EU accession had its substantial impact on Bulgaria, too. In its first year in the Union, the country was busy drafting new operational programmes in what is the first step toward absorption of EU structural and cohesion funds. The EC gave approval for all of them.
The year saw the first verdicts against people accused of embezzling Phare and Sapard pre-accession funds.
It also took Bulgaria 10 months to compile a full list with areas to join Natura 2000, the EUs network of protected natural habitats. The step-wise approval ran alongside protests from environmental activists and ensured that the bulk of their requests be honoured.
The country also entered the group of countries to suffer a radical 40 per cent cut in greenhouse gas allowances for 2007 and the 2008-2012 period. The ECs decision met firm opposition from the Government, industry associations and the public. Bulgaria also warned it would seek legal action against the EC unless it reduced the cut.
