Daily Yomiuri, Japan
June 3 2005
Basescu: EU expansion ‘treaty obligation’
Kazuo Nagata Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
Romanian President Traian Basescu said Thursday he was still certain
his country would join the European Union in 2007 as scheduled, but
further enlargement of the union would be extremely difficult as a
result of Dutch and French rejection of the EU constitution in
national referendums.
“We already signed the accession treaty on April 25. All EU member
states have agreed and signed with Romania on the accession and it’s
a treaty obligation for both parties,” Basescu, who was visiting
Tokyo, said during an interview, referring to the treaty signed in
Luxembourg and ratified on May 18 by the Romanian parliament.
“The EU constitution is another matter. It is mainly in connection
with the future institutional development of the EU that the French
and Dutch people rejected it in referendums, and we consider there
will not be an influence on the accession process of Romania,”
Basescu said, stressing the scheduled EU enlargement process to take
Romania and Bulgaria into the fold on Jan. 1, 2007, must remain on
track.
However, Basescu said the French and Dutch referendums revealed
people’s “concern” about EU enlargement and the results “obliged”
European leaders to carefully examine the impact of what he called
the first wave of enlargement–10 countries admitted to the union in
May 2004 plus Romania and Bulgaria in 2007–on European citizens’
everyday lives before they can convince their people to invite more
countries to join.
Basescu said he supported the entry of Croatia, a former Yugoslav
republic, and Turkey, both of which are scheduled to open accession
talks with the EU later this year, but it might be a while before the
newly rising democracies in the former communist bloc, such as
Ukraine and Georgia, could be considered candidates for EU
membership.
Citing the example of the formation of the GUAM coalition of Georgia,
Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova to seek security and economic
cooperation in the Black Sea region, Basescu said countries yet to
open negotiations with the EU could first foster regional forums “to
keep the momentum for integration” alive and well.
Basescu, who became president in December, was visiting Japan to
attend Romania’s national day event at 2005 World Exposition Aichi on
Wednesday. He was scheduled to fly back home later Thursday after
meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Acknowledging it will likely be “no earlier than 2012,” or five years
after the planned EU accession, before Romania can adopt the euro,
Basescu stressed that his country’s economy was “dynamic” and he
expects “minimum 6 percent of annual growth in gross domestic product
for the next few years,” in calling for investment by Japanese firms.
He also stressed the EU, by including newly developing economies like
Romania, could enjoy the advantage of the additional market.
“Everybody talks about how much the [existing members] are supporting
the applicant countries, but nobody talks of the advantage the
applicants can bring,” Basescu stressed.
Romania, which became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization last year, is reported to be negotiating with the United
States to host U.S. military bases on its soil. Basescu, citing “open
or frozen conflicts” in areas such as Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia
and Abkhazia, all in the Black Sea region, said it would be in
Romania’s interest to have U.S. forces present in the region.
“For our security, NATO’s and Europe’s security, we strongly believe
part of the NATO or U.S. forces in Europe has to be redistributed to
a NATO country around the Black Sea area, which can be Bulgaria or
Romania,” Basescu said, but stopped short of confirming whether a
decision had been made to host a base in his country.
Touching on the situation in Iraq, Basescu said Romania would
continue its military presence there for the time being. “We will
fulfill the mission in Iraq. We will be there until the elected
government of Iraq says they would like to see Romanian troops out,”
he said.
Asked about the Iraqi transitional government’s request recently to
the U.N. Security Council for the extension of the deployment of
coalition forces, Basescu declined to say whether his country was
ready to accept an extended mandate.
Whether Romania would keep its troops in Iraq beyond the end of this
year as the current U.N. Security Council resolution mandates
“depends [on] how far the mandate would be extended,” Basescu said,
adding that he would analyze a new resolution once it comes to the
Security Council and would reach a conclusion based on consultations
with allies, including the United States and Japan.