A new year, a new era: Romania and Bulgaria join the European Union

The New Year celebrations on the 31st of December 2006 were unusually noisy in Bucharest and Sofia. At last, two and a half years later than their central European neighbours, and six months later than originally envisaged because of concerns about the pace of reform of criminal justice systems and measures to tackle corruption, Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union.Accession is likely to bring further economic growth.1 But will health also improve? Life expectancy at birth is at the bottom of the European Union league although in Bulgaria, and a little more unsteadily in Romania, it has been increasing rapidly since the late 1990s.2 However it cannot be assumed that this progress will continue. Rapid gains in life expectancy seen in Hungary in the years leading up to its accession have since slowed markedly while, in both Latvia and Lithuania, life expectancy in 2005 was lower than in 2004.What then must be done to … Correspondence: Martin McKee, European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, e-mail: martin.mckee{at}lshtm.ac.uk