Acceding Countries Warned By EU Over Urgent Need For Legislative Changes

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

02 May 2003

Reports have suggested that several of the 10 countries set to accede to the European Union in 2004 are facing delays in the implementation of various necessary pieces of legislation, which could lead the EU to put in place 'protection clauses' against the countries in question.

According to a list seen by the EU Observer news service, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Malta, Cyprus, and Hungary all need to amend their legislation with regard to one key aspect, whilst Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Slovakia need to make progress in several problem areas.

Poland - which still needs to address nine areas, including fisheries, free movement of goods, competition, industrial policy, and financial control - recently received a sharp warning from the European Union's director general on EU enlargement, Eneko Landburu.

Mr Landburu told the Polish government on Monday that if significant progress is not made towards implementing new legislation in the aforementioned areas over the next few months, the EU may need to resort to exerting political pressure on the country, or to introducing infringement procedures to protect the internal market from any disruption which may occur as a result of the country's accession.

He warned that if the majority of the necessary changes are not in place by November, when the European Commission must present reports on the readiness of the 10 countries to join the EU, then the introduction of protection clauses will be inevitable.

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