EU Enlargement

The United States welcomed the European Commission’s approval of the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the European Union on January 1, 2007, and urged the EU to keep an open mind about adding other countries. On September 26, the European Commission (EC) reported that both countries have made sufficient progress to “be in a position to take on the rights and obligations of EU membership.” The commission added that the two countries need to make further reforms and said it had set up safeguards to assure the reform process will continue after accession. A formal approval of membership is expected when European Union leaders meet in October, even though the leaders could chose to postpone accession. The decision is “welcome news for those two countries as well as the EU,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said September 26, adding, “The EU is wrestling with these issues of expansion and at what pace to take the talks that they have ongoing with a variety of other countries.” Those matters are up to the Europeans, of course, McCormack said, but the United States “certainly would encourage the EU to continue to keep open a European horizon for a number of states, including those in the Balkans and Turkey, as well.”

President Bush welcomed the addition of 10 new countries into the European Union on May 3, 2004, saying the organization's enlargement into countries with established democracies "helps create a Europe whole, free, and at peace." In a statement, Bush said the United States also welcomes the prospect of further enlargement to "qualified countries, including Romania and Bulgaria," and supports Turkey's EU aspirations. In 1953, the United States sent an ambassador and opened an office to the European Coal and Steel community. The U.S. has been a partner in this endeavor with the European Union from its inception: it recognized that a strong, free, and prosperous Europe was in the best interests of the U.S. too. The U.S. knows that EU enlargement will bring challenges -- challenges for the accession states themselves, for current EU members, and for the United States and other “third” countries. But there is no doubt that enlargement will also bring a new richness to Europe and to the transatlantic partnership.

Ambassador Peter Allgeier, U.S. Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization, and Ambassador Carlo Trojan, European Commission Permanent Representative to the WTO, at the signing of an agreement on trade concessions related to the EU's enlargement, Geneva. Photo: U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva The United States and the European Union signed a bilateral trade agreement March 22 in Geneva on a comprehensive package of EU trade concessions to compensate the United States for tariff increases that resulted from the EU’s May 2004 enlargement. The agreement was reached in November 2005 but required approval by the EU member states. It was signed in Geneva by U.S. Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Peter Allgeier and European Commission Ambassador to the WTO Carlo Trojan. The agreement reduces several EU agricultural and industrial tariffs to offset increases that occurred when the 10 countries that acceded to the EU in 2004 were required to change their tariff schedules to conform to the EU's common external tariff schedule. Under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the United States is entitled to compensation from the EU to offset some of those changes. Implementation of the EU concessions is to go into effect no later than July 1.