European Union officials praised Bulgaria and Romania on Wednesday for preparations for EU entry next year but said things were "not perfect" and urged them to push on with reform, according to Reuters. The EU's executive Commission gave the Black Sea neighbours the green light on Tuesday to join the wealthy bloc on Jan. 1, waiving a potential one-year delay. But it imposed the toughest entry conditions on any EU newcomers to date and said it could deny them full membership benefits or strip them of some of the billions of euros in aid they are due unless they continued with reforms. "Yesterday we announced the decision. Today we are commemorating. Tomorrow, let's go back to work, because there's a lot still to be done," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a news conference in Sofia. In particular, the EU says Bulgaria must improve its lumbering judiciary and crack down on graft and organised crime gangs who emerged from the chaotic period following the fall of communism to take over large parts of its economy. It must also amend its constitution to remove ambiguity about judicial independence and accountability and prove it can jail corrupt top-level officials and crime bosses. Romania must strengthen its top court and establish an agency to identify the assets of senior officials. Both countries need to finish setting up agencies to disburse EU farm and development funds. "I want to encourage you to continue the reforms because everything is not perfect," said EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn in Sofia. EU member states are expected to sign off on the entry date at a meeting in October. WORK CUT OUT The two countries missed out on the bloc's first expansion into eastern Europe in 2004, when it accepted 10 new members, because their economic and political reforms were judged too slow. Their entry will swell the EU to include 27 member states, and add around 30 million people to its current population of more than 450 million. The bloc can impose sanctions, which could exclude the newcomers from policies such as open borders and common markets, for up to three years after entry, although both countries said they had been allowed to join because they were ready. "I want to make it very clear that we are not joining the EU through the back door but with our heads held high," Romanian Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said after meeting Barroso and Rehn in Bucharest. Despite economic growth of over six percent, the newcomers are the poorest EU states. Salaries average 150-200 euros a month and economic output is a third of EU levels, sparking fears in the EU that workers will flood their markets. Most EU members will refuse entry to Bulgarian and Romanian workers for now, while Britain, which has been flooded by an estimated 600,000 immigrants from ex-communist member states, said it would let them in only gradually. Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev vowed to dispel fears that allowing Bulgaria to join is a mistake. "Now our big ambition should be to prove to many sceptics that we Bulgarians are capable," he said.
