Bulgarians may face to safeguard clauses

The European Union will impose to safeguard clauses on Bulgaria and will not include any clear recommendation on the date Bulgaria and Romania should join the EU, according to a draft of the European Commission report due to be published May 16, obtained by Bulgarian TV station BTV, quoted by Novinite.com.

The source says the decision on the date will be made several hours before the EC presents its monitoring report on the two countries in the European Parliament on Tuesday.

Bulgaria is said to be criticized for not being able to establish a subsidy payment agency for agricultural funds provided by the EU, which would raise doubts about the preparation of the country in dealing with regional subsidies of several billion euro.

And the situation may prompt the Union to block the assistance to Bulgaria even if the country is invited to join on January 1, 2007 and not later

BTV does not say what are the two specific safeguard clauses, but Bulgarian Justice minister said on Saturday he wouldn?t be surprised if the country would face such a clause in the field of Justice and Home Affairs.