whereas, as Parliament has repeatedly emphasised, the accession of Bulgaria should depend exclusively on its own merits and should not be linked to the candidacy of any other country or indeed be disadvantaged by unrelated concerns about the course of future EU enlargement; whereas it is nevertheless to be hoped that the accession of Romania and Bulgaria will be able to take place at the same time, [the European Parliament] [w]elcomes the ratification of Bulgaria's Treaty of Accession by many Member States and urges the speedy completion of the ratification process by the remainder;