Five-year wait for poorest nations

Two of Europe's poorest nations – Bulgaria and Romania – were put on the fast track to membership of the European Union yesterday, promising them an end to years of economic and political ruin.

The execution of Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian tyrant, a few days after Christmas in 1989 was the most gruesome image of the collapse of communism, in stark contrast to the celebrations after the fall of the Berlin Wall a few months earlier.

Ceausescu and his wife Elena were tried by a military court and sentenced to death by shooting a few days after a miners' revolution toppled his government. Thirteen years later, Romania is still one of the poorest countries in central and eastern Europe .

Living standards have continued to fall – wages are down more than 40 per cent in real terms since the fall of Ceausescu. The country is riddled with corruption and the EU has ranked Romania last of all the enlargement candidates. But a government elected in November 2000 has improved political stability and promises to promote economic reform and human rights.

Like Romania, Bulgaria is on track to join the EU in the second wave of enlargement. Bulgaria's problems are economic rather than political and the European Commission believes it is close to being a fully fledged market economy provided further reform are undertaken.

The commission's 2002 enlargement report also points to Bulgaria's improvements in combating corruption.

Last year, Bulgaria's King Simeon became the first eastern European monarch to return to power since the fall of communism. But instead of regaining his throne, he has returned after more than 50 years in exile to be democratically elected prime minister. His promises to stamp out corruption and bring his country into the EU and Nato have impressed other European leaders.