Westward bound

last updated 8 January 2015

Sofia, Bulgaria

Bulgaria and Romania signed treaties with the European Union this week that could allow the countries to become full E.U. members as early as 2007. But the two former communist countries must make sweeping political and economic reforms if they are to meet that goal. Bulgaria needs a completely new criminal code and must crack down on organized crime. Romania, which was only declared a “market economy” last year, must eliminate many of its state subsidies, draft new environmental laws, and drastically improve living conditions for its Gypsy minority. Romanian President Traian Basescu called E.U. membership “the fulfillment of a dream more than half a century old.”