The French senate will ratify the Accession Treaty for Romania and Bulgaria immediately after the Progress Report on the two countries is released at the end of October, according to Mediafax, quoting Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu.
This would make France the first EU-15 country to ratify the Treaty, after Parliaments in several EU-10 states have already passed it. Tariceanu paid a visit to Paris, accompanied by foreign minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu and minister of interior Vasile Blaga. After meeting the chairman of the French Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs Serge Vincon, Tariceanu will continue today by seeing his counterpart Dominique de Villepin, the president of the National Assembly, Jean-Loius Debre and Romania's Rapporteur for the European Parliament, Pierre Moscovici.