European Commissioner, Gunter Verheugen, has urged Cyprus to hasten procedures with regard to the harmonization of the energy sector with the Community acquis, stressing that there have been major delays so far.

The European Commission is expected to notify the nine candidate countries (with the exception of Slovenia) to adopt the Community acquis faster, although procedures are in progress.

Meanwhile, Poland and Latvia are considerably behind the EU schedule with a delay in nine and five sectors of the Community acquis respectively.

It is noted that the candidate countries are supervised by the European Commission, which is expected to prepare a progress report on May. It is worth mentioning that the final report for each candidate country will be submitted to the Council of Ministers on November, six months following their full accession in the EU.