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Bulgaria acknowledges slowdown in EU entry talks

SOFIA: Bulgaria, which hopes to join the European Union in 2007, indicated on Monday it might not be able to meet its ambitious target of wrapping up membership talks with the union by May 2004.

European Integration Minister Meglena Kuneva told a news conference Sofia's accession negotiations had slowed down this year because the last issues of the entry talks were the hardest and were taking more time.

"There is a slowdown in approving important draft bills by the government.... There is a need to catch up with the targets we have set ourselves," Kuneva said.

"The talks on the remaining chapters continue slower... because these are very tough areas and take more time to complete. The reforms that need to be done are not easy and painless," she said.

The pro-Western government of the ex-king, now Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg, had sped up tough market-orientated reforms despite public discontent, and quickly closed 23 out of 31 chapters in EU membership talks.

This compares with 16 chapters closed by neighbouring Romania, which also hopes to join the union in 2007.

Bulgaria has said it aims to complete the bulk of the work in 2003 and conclude accession negotiations by May 2004, when the union is due to admit 10 more mostly central and east European countries.

But Kuneva said her team would be able close four of the remaining eight chapters by end-2003, while the rest was in the hands of the European Commission.

"We can not conclude talks on agriculture, regional policy and budget and finances until the European Commission approves a financial framework for Bulgaria's membership," Kuneva said.

Analysts have said the financial package for Bulgaria and Romania would probably become clear as early as 2006 during talks on the EU's new budgetary round.-Reuters