European Commission's last warning for Romania

The European Commission has announced Romania that the EU will apply the safeguard clause and Romanians will lose 443 million Euro, unless the state settles the severe deficiencies in agriculture in one month's time.
As predictable, Romania has got into trouble in Brussels again. A letter by the European Commission reached the Romanian agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes yesterday, warning the safeguard clause was a threat. If applied, it would mean a 25% cut on the EU subventions for Romanian agriculture, reaching 443 million Euro in 2008. Unless Romania remedies certain severe deficiencies in its fund management and control system, the Commission will meet in late November and decide to apply the safeguard clause, which doesn't go for Bulgaria too, because the officials have concluded everything is working perfectly in the latter country.
The European Commission mentions in the release those persisting flaws in Romania, as noticed by the audit teams who visited the country in June and September: the IT system allowing the outcome of checks to enter the system and the calculation of sums to be paid. There are also mentioned deficiencies persisting in administrative checks and more.
The statement made by the European Commission's spokesman makes it obvious that Brussels officials are now waiting for a miracle to bring very fast action and guarantee for more checks on the spot. One more problem may consist in their intention to continue the audit controls and to check on the system's solvency with help from an international company. EU officials are little or not at all confident in national authorities' ability to achieve it.
In his interview to ZIUA, Michael Mann, a spokesman for the European Commission, explains this is a last warning for Romania. He advises the country to start work at once, hurry up and make the IT system operative. The EU official mentions the first deadline is November 9, when Romanian authorities are to present the updated state of computer systems. The spokesman adds that, in case they decide not to apply the safeguard clause, they will have to proceed to audit controls in the first months of 2008 and he claims that EU officials are neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but just hopeful.

Cristian Unteanu, Brussels
Ziua thursday 11 october 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english