Bucharest -- Romania's upcoming European Union entry on January 1 is to be celebrated in Bucharest with fireworks, concerts and street festivals.

Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu is to celebrate the event at midnight on Sunday on Bucharest's Revolution Square with high-ranking guests of the state.

The guests are to include German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as representative of the German EU Council presidency, as well as EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin, whose country also is joining the EU on the same day.

At the same time as the prime ministerial celebrations, Romanian President Traian Basescu is to attend a separate street festival at University Square.

Observers say the fact that Basescu and Tariceanu are not celebrating together is a further sign of the rivalry between the two. // © 2006 DPA

A Romanian worker installs a TV light projector above the stage during the preparations for celebrating Romania's entry in the EU in front of Atheneum building Revolution Plazza in Bucharest Friday 29 December 2006. EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT	A Romanian worker attaches with an electric screwdriver blue indicators pointing towards European capitals in the ciry of Craiova 200 Km South West from Bucharest Friday 29 December 2006.  EPA/DARIUS MITRACHE

Publication date: 30 December 2006   

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