The governments of Romania and Bulgaria have been told that if they want to come out and play with the other European Union nations they need to get on and sort out all those music pirates first. Both countries are due to join the EU on 1 Jan next year, but at a summit of EU leaders last week it was ruled that their governments must first demonstrate that they are taking proper action in fighting piracy, organised crime and corruption.
Both Romania and Bulgaria have long been home to prolific piracy operations, generating pirated CD and DVDs that are sold both within their own countries and across Europe. While recognising that some progress has been made in Romania in combating piracy in the last two years, EU officials have said that both countries must "step up their efforts to tackle decisively and without delay the remaining issues of concern".
That said, officials stressed that their ongoing concerns did not mean that it would be impossible for Bulgaria and Romania to join the EU next year as planned, adding that "with the remaining political will, both countries can overcome the deficits to reach the envisaged date of accession on January 1."