Enlargement of the European Union and "morally imperative", which reflected the desire of the EU to admit these countries as members, even though they were less developed than the Western European countries. Following this Romania and Bulgaria, though were deemed initially as not fully ready by the Commission to join in 2004, acceded nevertheless on 1 January 2007. These, like the countries joining in 2004, faced a series of restrictions as to their citizens not fully enjoying working rights on the territory of some of the older EU members. Bulgaria and Romania are not yet members of the Schengen area; however, their citizens can travel
2007 European Parliament election in Romania 2007 European Parliament election in Romania Romania elected its members of the European Parliament for the first time on 25 November 2007; the election was initially scheduled for 13 May, but the PM postponed it for domestic political reasons. A referendum on a new voting system was held on the same day. Romania joined the European Union on 1 January 2007, and was initially represented in the European Parliament by 35 observers as follows: 35 MEPs were appointed by Romania to serve as observers in the Parliament before the country joined in 2007. Since then up until the election, the