Romanians and Bulgarians rejoice at EU membership

BUCHAREST/SOFIA, Jan 1 (Reuters) Millions of Romanians and Bulgarians revelled in their first day as citizens of the European Union today, after a night of fireworks and street parties celebrating their countries' entry into the bloc.

Deemed too politically and economically backward for membership during the EU's first eastward expansion in 2004, the Black Sea neighbours squeezed through the door in what political analysts say was the last chance to join this decade.

The accession of the poor, ex-communist duo raises the EU's membership to 27 states, almost half of them former eastern bloc countries cut off from the West by the Iron Curtain until 1989.

''Bulgaria's and Romania's accession to the EU completes our historic fifth round of enlargement, which peacefully reunified Western and Eastern Europe,'' EU President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement of congratulations.

Romania -- the larger of the two -- and Bulgaria will together boost the EU's population by 30 million, to 490 million, but will add just one per cent to its economic output.

Once hosts to two of the Cold War's most hard-line regimes, the Danube pair stretch the EU's borders from the Atlantic and Baltic in the west and north to the Black Sea in the southeast.

The entry process was marred by foot-dragging in Sofia and Bucharest on issues critical in the EU like fighting graft and organised crime and preparing to tap EU funds, causing some EU states to baulk at the prospect of further enlargement.

Fearing waves of immigration and crime that could drive their citizens out of jobs and undermine society, the public in some older EU members want accession hopefuls like Turkey and countries in the western Balkans to wait much longer for entry.

LONG AND DIFFICULT ROAD ''We are Home!'' said a headline in the Bulgarian newspaper Trud in a special New Year's day edition.

''It was a difficult road but we got there. Now we are taking a new path, path to victory and ... to happiness,'' Romania's president Traian Basescu told emotional crowds at Bucharest's University Square as the clock showed seconds before midnight.

Eager to tap 40 billion euros in EU development funds to overhaul dilapidated infrastructure and boost industry, Bulgaria and Romania hope membership will help them close a huge wealth gap with the West.

But problems remain.

Despite efforts to tackle corrupt ''big fish'' politicians, including charges laid against former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, Romania is by far the EU's most corrupt country, ranking 84 out 163 countries on Transparency International's corruption perceptions index, behind China and Cuba.

In Bulgaria, powerful organised crime gangs born from Soviet-era secret services control large parts of the economy, diplomats say, and authorities have failed to convict a single suspect for over 150 gangland murders since 2001.

And although the Romanian and Bulgarian economies are growing fast -- 8.3 and 6.7 per cent, respectively, in the third quarter -- income per capita is just a third of the EU average.

Diplomats fear that, having achieved admission, politicians will relax on reforms and Brussels has vowed to monitor the new members, threatening to penalise them if they fall behind.

After raging celebrations in the streets, Bulgarians and Romanians hoped their new status would mean an end to prejudice and isolation they felt as non-EU members.

''Until today when I have gone to other countries, every waitress, every salesman turned up his nose when hearing I come from Romania,'' said salesman Sergiu Radu, 27.

''I hope this means an end to that shame and frustration.'' REUTERS MS PM1907