If Bulgaria follows its commitments and manages to implement EU-related reforms on time, the country's membership of the Union will not be delayed. The European Commission will also keep to its commitments made in the accession treaty, signed in April, said EU Customs and Tax Policies Commissioner Laslo Kovac. On Monday, Kovac had talks in Sofia with Bulgaria's European Integration Minister, Meglena Kouneva.
Kovac said that the upcoming EC report on Bulgaria's progress, to be issued in October, would not aim at postponing Bulgaria's membership. The purpose of the report was to highlight problem areas and to propose solutions, preventing a possible delay. Kovac also had talks with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, and said that the positive signals that the new Government was sending to European institutions indicated that it was probably that the country would complete reforms on time. Kovac said that despite the votes in France and the Netherlands against the European constitution, euroskepticism had not increased in member countries. The results would not affect enlargement policies. Kovac said that several countries had expressed concern about the future of a larger union, but most believed in the importance of enlargement, mediapool.bg reported.