Brussels, 20/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - Romania and Bulgaria have continued to commit to the path to legal reform and the fight against corruption, but not enough has been done, with Bucharest and Sofia still needing to make more of an effort, particularly as regards Bulgaria, on the fight against organised crime. This observation was made by the European Commission on Wednesday 20 July in its fifth annual report on the mechanism for cooperation and verification (MCV). This mechanism has been applied to these countries since they joined the EU in 2007, to bring them closer to the judicial and anti-corruption standards of the other member states.
This traditional exercise is incidentally considerably more political that the European Commission states. The Commission is still declining to associate the MCV with prospects for joining Schengen. However, a series of member states, the Netherlands, France and Germany, amongst others, have definitely decided to take these results as their partial basis to allow Sofia and Bucharest to join the free-movement area. In September, the home affairs ministers of the EU will meet to take stock of the situation of Schengen enlargement and give Sofia and Bucharest potential accession dates, or dates for a staggered accession. In this context, the report published by the Commission on 20 July must therefore be studied closely by these delegations.
Furthermore, things could prove a bit more complex for Bulgaria than for Romania, with the assessment submitted by the Commission having been tougher on Sofia than on Bucharest. In its report, the Commission notes “serious challenges” to be met by Bulgaria, on a number of fronts. Amongst other things, the Commission is concerned that “since last summer, several acquittals have been pronounced in high-level corruption, fraud and organised crime cases”, which “stresses major shortcomings in legal practice in Bulgaria”, the report states.
Nor have these shortcomings been analysed as they should have been by officials such as the Superior Council of the magistracy, states the Commission. The report also stresses “the lack of transparency and credibility” in appointments in the judicial system. A law adapted in December, the law on the judicial system, was partly supposed to deal with this issue of appointments, but again, the Commission regrets that this has not been properly implemented and therefore calls on Sofia to remedy this as soon as possible.
As regards the fight against organised crime, the report hails certain progress, such as reorganising the competent police departments. Despite these reforms, Sofia's efforts in this area need to be “improved considerably”, states the Commission. It also highlights a number of acquittals in cases involving large criminal groups. The same goes for the fight against high-level corruption, states the report, which has not yet “given any convincing results”. In this area, it appears that “legal practice and investigation methods present serious shortcomings”, the Commission highlights. The institution therefore makes seven recommendations to Bulgaria, to be complied with before the next reports, scheduled for 2012, between reinforcing professionalisation and increased responsibility in the legal apparatus and improving investigation methods.
Nor does Romania escape criticism. Bucharest must take “urgent action” to speed up a number of major high-level corruption trials, writes the Commission, and to prevent them from being cancelled due to expiring deadlines. The report also recommends that Romania keep its “political willingness” to continue efforts against corruption and also counts on the “degree of commitment of the legal authorities”. Overall, however, Bucharest has been given overall satisfactory marks, with the Commission praising the work of the national anti-corruption directorate, for example, which has been satisfactory, and noting that Bucharest has implemented a series of measures on the basis of the Commission's previous recommendations, such as an assessment of the functioning of the judicial apparatus and an impact analysis of its anti-corruption policies.
In the Commission's view, however, there is as yet no question of lifting the level of supervision both countries have been under since 2007, as this MCV remains “still necessary” and should continue to apply, a Commission spokesperson stated on Wednesday. In July 2012, the Commission will carry out an overall assessment of progress made by the two countries since 2007 and will at that point possibly be able to take position on whether or not there is a need to keep the mechanism in place. In recent months, the Netherlands has already stated that it wants to use this date to be able to take position on Sofia and Bucharest joining the Schengen area. (S.P./transl.fl)