The Lithuanian parliament on Thursday approved pacts granting Bulgaria and Romania European Union membership, according to local news reports reaching here.

So far, 12 of the 25 EU member countries have passed the documents and the remainder are expected to give the green light to them by the end of the year.

Bulgaria and Romania signed the accession pacts on April 25, 2005, to join EU on the scheduled date of Jan. 1, 2007.

Yet the pacts also contain an item, under which the two would-be members are required to meet a commitment to implement reforms within the given period, or their accession will be postponed by one year.

Source: Xinhua