The head of the European Commission Delegation to Bucharest Jonathan Scheele told Romanians they should not worry about what was going on in the neighbor Bulgaria, but focus on their own country.

The statement came within a press conference on Wednesday, following reports from Strasbourg and Romania that the postponement of a certain accession date was due to Bulgaria’s lobby not to disclose it on May 16.

Scheele explained that the postponement of the date disclosure lies with the punctual problems emphasized by the EC report, and that the October evaluation will give the verdict whether Romania will enter EU on January 1, 2007.

Among the main aspects that need continuation of efforts are the anti-corruption fight and political stability. The European official drew attention to the law of political parties financing, another source of corruption and a delicate problem of many European countries.

According to the statement of Liberal euro-observer Adrian Cioroianu for Hotnews.ro, Commissioners Frattinni and Olli Rehn feared that the announcement of the date might slow down the pace of reforms.

Jonathan Scheele admitted that the conclusions of the report were written down in the last moments but denied there were differences between the preliminary report discussed on Monday evening and the final version presented in the European Parliament on Tuesday.