BRUSSELS (AFP) - Romania and Bulgaria, left out of the European Union's historic expansion which this year brought in 10 new countries, are on track to join the bloc in 2007 but Croatia will have to wait, according to an EU report.
Romania and Bulgaria "will be able to fulfill all the criteria" for joining the union in January 2007 and the accession treaty is likely to be signed early next year, according to the document cited by a diplomatic source here.
But Croatia, which wants to join at the same time as the other two countries, is not given a start date for accession talks in the European Commission report, the source said.
And Zagreb should be warned that its membership talks could be suspended if it does not continue to improve its democratic and human rights standards, the report recommends.
Croatia obtained official EU candidate status in June and hopes to start accession talks early next year.
The commission report, the latest in the EU executive's annual declarations on candidate states, is to be published Wednesday, when another commission report on Turkey is expected to say that Ankara is ready to begin talks on joining the European club.
The report also recommends a "safeguard clause" that could delay entry of either Romania or Bulgaria by a year if their economic and administrative reforms falter.
It says that Romania now has a "functioning market economy," able to withstand the competitive pressures inside the bloc, the diplomatic source said.
Bulgaria was last year deemed to have a functioning market economy, a benchmark set by the EU for membership.
Bulgaria closed its EU accession negotiations in June, but Romania has still to complete some areas of its entry dossier, notably in environmental, competition and legal fields.
Romanian President Ion Iliescu said Wednesday he was "optimistic" that his country will fulfill all the requirements to join the union on January 1, 2007.
Wednesday's report says: "Bulgaria should... enhance its progress in the fight against corruption.
"Efforts need to be fostered with regard to improving the situation of the Roma (gypsy) community," it adds.
In Romania, the document says, "corruption remains a serious and widespread problem which affects almost all aspects of society."
Cases of serious physical attacks against journalists have increased, it adds, and Romania "remains a country of origin, transit and destination for victims of trafficking in humain beings."
The two neighbouring countries dragged their feet in implementing reforms after the collapse of communism in 1989 and were excluded from the wave of mostly central and eastern European states that joined the EU in May, boosting its members to 25 countries.
They were allowed begin accession talks four years ago.
Key conditions set on Croatia's EU bid include the return of ethnic Serbs who fled the country during and after the 1991-95 war of independence from the former Yugoslavia, judicial reform and full cooperation with the UN war crimes court at The Hague.
Support for Croatia's EU membership has dropped dramatically to less than 50 percent, according to an opinion poll published in Zagreb on Tuesday. In January, 72.4 percent backed the move.
Of the former Yugoslav republics only Slovenia became an EU member this year.