Brussels, 23/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - Bulgaria and Romania, particularly the latter, are not doing enough to reform their judicial systems and tackle corruption, announced the European Commission on Tuesday 23 March, following the publication of technical assessment reports carried out under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) which was set up when the two countries joined the EU on 1 January 2007. The reports list the facts and changes in the situation since July 2009, when the Commission submitted a detailed progress report for each of the benchmarks set up for Bulgaria and Romania (see EUROPE 9946). In the summer, the Commission will publish a detailed assessment of progress in the two countries.
The report points out that over the past six months, Bulgaria has launched a number of important initiatives which demonstrate desire for reform but which have not yet generated any results. At the same time, the report refers to the continuously poor results of the judicial system to investigate, prosecute and try cases of high-level corruption and organised crime. In the area of judicial reform, Bulgaria plans improvements to the Penal Procedure Code in order to achieve shorter and more effective investigations and court proceedings. The Commission says that “allegations of serious corruption in relation to appointments to senior positions in the judiciary have undermined the reputation of the judiciary in the second half of 2009 and need to be fully examined”. The report points out that more initiatives need to be launched in order to overhaul the judicial system. With regard to the fight against corruption and organised crime, Bulgaria plans to improve the effectiveness of the forfeiture of criminal assets by applying forfeiture to a wider group of persons related to a crime unless the legal origin of assets can be proven. “Although a number of new investigations and indictments for high-level corruption and organised crime have recently been reported, delays in important cases continued and no conviction in a high-level case could be reported since mid-2009”, regrets the Commission. Bulgaria is urged to consolidate the capacity of the judicial system in order to achieve tangible outcomes in high-level corruption cases and the country is urged to intensify its reforms in order to achieve tangible, measurable and significant outcomes.
The Commission's assessment is far more severe about Romania. The report “notes that Romania has not been able to keep the momentum of reform it had established by mid-2009”. Romania can only demonstrate limited results in judicial reform and the fight against corruption is suffering delays in court cases against high-ranking figures. When it comes to judicial reform, no real improvement could be noted for the difficult human resourcing situation in the judiciary and the capacity of the judicial system has been put under further strain by net staff losses, explains the Commission. Romania must intensify efforts to ensure rapid introduction of codes of civilian and criminal law conduct. In the fight against corruption, the report “commends the continuously convincing track record of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate in the investigation and prosecution of high-level corruption cases and notes a further consolidation of the results of the National Integrity Agency in the administrative follow-up to incompatibilities, conflicts of interest and unjustified wealth” but the Commission notes that “continued delays in high-level corruption trials, together with inconsistency and leniency in penalties applied by the courts, continue to present important challenges for Romania”. The Commission urges the country to introduce tight and constructive cooperation between the various politicians and the judicial system to back the necessary reform process. (B.C./transl.fl)