European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso and his Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn were in Bucharest on Wednesday morning to discuss with Romanian officials the EC recommendations included in the report presented in the European Parliament yesterday.

In a press statement after talking to PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu, Barroso said he came to Romania with a message of congratulations for the progress reported so far and a message of trust in Romania’s capacity to join on January 1, 2007 as scheduled.

He said he hoped Romania would be able to cross the finish line on January 1 next year and mentioned the judicial reform as a “priority of priorities” that Romania should consider most seriously, just like all the other recommendations included in yesterday’s report.

He avoided to speculate on a possible decoupling of Romania and Bulgaria on the last lap of the accession process and insisted that while the progress of each country will be analyzed separately, the EU wanted both to join simultaneously.

For his part, PM Tariceanu announced that in the coming days EU and Romanian experts will analyze the issues still to be solved so that Romania join the EU on the scheduled date.

The two officials leave for Sofia Wednesday at noon, where they will have talks with PM Sergei Stanisev and members of the Government.