Brussels, 06/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 6 July, the European Commission and several heads of the political groups at the EP stepped up the pressure on Romania and the government of centre-left Prime Minister Victor Ponta. They voiced their concern at recent events in the country, among them the launch, on the same day, of the procedure to remove centre-right President Traian Basescu from office. The Commission reiterated its warnings in an official declaration, telling Bucharest in no uncertain terms that the report currently being prepared on Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) may seriously suffer from the internal political trouble and jeopardise “all of the progress made in five years”, the Commission explains.
This report, which is due in the second half of July, is also expected to state whether the country, and Bulgaria, must continue to be subjected to this “rule of law measure”. Since 2007, this mechanism has been assessing the degree of corruption and legal reforms to guarantee the independence of the judiciary in both countries, on the basis of recommendations by the Commission. The CVM also feeds into the decisions of the home affairs ministers regarding the enlargement of the Schengen zone to Bucharest and Sofia. However, the Commission is of the opinion that the current situation is cause for concern, because it seems to be reducing the “effective powers of independent institutions” such as the Constitutional Court. In recent days, a number of figures belonging to the centre-right party and holding key posts, in the Senate or lower house, for example, have been removed from their positions. Other recent decisions include removing the mediator (advocate of the people in Romanian), limiting the funding of the Constitutional Court and attempts to remove certain judges, as well as changing the conditions for the referendum to remove the president, in an emergency order issued on Thursday 5 July.
The Commission takes the view that it is mainly the “succession” of decisions which is proving so troubling, the institution's spokesperson, Olivier Bailly, stated on Friday, “and the speed with which they are being taken”. In its declaration, the Commission points out that the rule of law and the independence of the judicial institutions are basic principles of European democracy and states that it will continue to follow the situation.
On Friday, Commission President José Manuel Barroso spoke to Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who is to visit Brussels on Thursday of next week. The prime minister was keen to respond to the concerns of his partners, pledging that Romania would remain “a stable country in which the rule of law is respected, despite the political crisis underway”, AFP reports. “Romania will remain a stable country in which the rule of law, the Constitution and European and international standards will be respected”, Ponta explained, stating that he was prepared for an assessment by his European and international partners of the controversial measures adopted in recent days. An assessment of this kind was also called for on Friday by the head of the Liberals at the EP, Guy Verhofstadt, who wrote to Commissioner Viviane Reding to ask her to provide the EP with the elements of this analysis. The head of the S&D group at the EP, Hannes Swoboda, who has been accused by the EPP of not raising his voice in the same way as he did for Hungary and Viktor Orban (a member of the EPP), said that action should be taken if every decision made in Romania contravened European standards, adding that this principle applied to all member states. (SP/transl.fl)