"We would have liked some of the measures you have taken lately to be taken long ago", German MEP Markus Ferber said during a debate on the progress Romania has recorded in advance of the European Commission monitoring report due within weeks.

The debate was organized April 20 by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation with the participation of German EPP members of the European Parliament, representatives of the Romanian leadership, political analysts, journalists and representatives of the civil society.

The debate, however, sounded more like a dialogue of the deaf, as the MEPs focused on Christian European values common to Germany and Romania, while many Romanian representatives seemed to recite lessons learned by heart before the debate.

German MEP Hartmut Nassauer said he was sure that all member states would ratify the accession treaty of Romania and Bulgaria before the end of the year and showed that if a recommendation to postpone the accession would not be included in the EC report in May, the two countries will join the Union on January 1, 2007 for sure.

If such a recommendation will exist, than the final decision belongs to the European Council.

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Markus Ferber, well known in Romania for his direct criticism of the country over the past couple of years, said that many of the latest measures of reform taken in Romania recently should have been taken longer ago so that the Europeans had time to see these measures be properly implemented.