i surely am romanian

During the past few days, in almost all my conversations with Romanian friends all over the world, the issue of Romania’s integration in the EU was mentioned and discussed.

Finally, yesterday, 26^th of September, the Commission Report for Bulgaria and Romania was released. And YES, both countries will join EU on 1^st of January 2007. There are still many things to improve, some other things to get rid of and a lot more to be changed in people’s minds. But we’ll get there and we can celebrate this.

There’ve been too many years when people were wonderring if Romania is part of Europe. One of the biggest foolishnesses I have ever heard, as from the moment when you first learn geography, you can discover that Romania is right in the south central part of Europe, if you consider Europe to spread from the Atlantic Ocean until the Ural Mountains.

You can find some of the rows in the international media of today above:

Romania and Bulgaria have welcomed the announcement that they will be admitted to the EU in January 2007, albeit under strict conditions.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said the move was the final fall of the Berlin Wall for his nation.

His Romanian counterpart, Calin Tariceanu, said his people should be proud of themselves.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said both countries had made enough progress to join the union.

But they will be checked for progress in curbing organised crime and corruption, and ensuring food safety and the proper use of EU funds.

The conditions are tougher than those imposed on previous new members.

'Remarkable transformation'

The commission's report confirms that after seven years of talks, Bulgaria and Romania are able to take on the rights and obligations of EU membership.

Reading the report, Mr Barroso said the two nations' entry would be a "historic achievement".

"Bulgaria and Romania have carried out an extraordinary reform process and they have gone through a remarkable transformation," he said.

The two countries missed out on the EU's big eastward expansion in 2004, which saw the EU grow to 25 member states.

Correspondents say they will be delighted that they can get in on schedule before Mr Barroso puts a block on further expansion.

Both countries will have to report every six months on progress in fighting corruption.

By March, they also need to set up agencies to handle millions of euros worth of EU farm aid, or risk losing a quarter of the cash.

Both will face food export bans due to the prevalence of animal diseases like swine fever, while Bulgarian planes could be banned from flying into EU airspace until the country improves its air safety standards.

There could also be restrictions on migration to other EU countries for up to three years.

'Limits'

An EU official said the commission did not want to punish Bulgaria and Romania, but to make them work harder to carry out reforms.

Another interesting thing that I've discovered while reading my BBC Newsletter, was the Quiz that BBC prepared for the readers to check how well one knows the first thing about the two next EU countries. It’s a quiz with 10 questions on history, sport, culture and wildlife. I took the quiz myself and the result was of 7 right answers – I definetely have to read more about Bulgaria:)

Check it out by clicking here!!!