Brussels, 13/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Friday morning, the European Commisson said it wanted the Romanian government to act fast to prevent the situation deteriorating, commenting on its request formulated on Thursday that Prime Minister Victor Ponta fully reinstate the powers of the country's constitutional court and act to remove any suspicion of wrong-doing by public authorities.
On Thursday 12 July, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, gave Ponta, who had come to Brussels, a list of problems to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Earlier in the day, the young prime minister had had a meeting with the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and did not see any problem with the request, promising after the meeting to respond in writing to all the concerns raised by the Commission. This letter promised by Victor Ponta is “very important for the Commission” and was expected to arrive on Friday 13 July.
On Thursday, explained a European source on Friday, a very long list of criticisms was handed to the Romanian prime minister, including recommendations that all the constitutional court's decisions be immediately respected, particularly the most recent decision on the form to be taken by a refernedum on 29 July that will decide on the fate of Traian Basescu. The constitutional court's decision rules that there must be a turnout of at least 50% for the referendum to be valid and after contradictory statements, Ponta said in Brussels that this 50% turnout rule would be respected.
The above-mentioned source says it is crucial to prevent systematic criticisms of, and challenges to, the power of the judiciary. Ponta's centre-left government has been asked to stop manipulating announcements in the Official Journal, to stop preventing constitutional scrutiny of emergency decisions (Ponta has issued many emergency decisions in recent weeks) and to appoint a mediator who has the support of all political parties. The Commission has also taken a longer view and asked the prime minister to recommend that all MEPs involved in criminal proceedings should resign and to avoid appointing any ministers who have legal proceedings against them.
The Romanian government must deal with all these shortcomings, and the Commission said on Friday that it would not conclude its report on the Control and Verification Mechanism (CVM), initially scheduled for 18 July, until there is an improvement in the situation. In other words, Bucharest has just a few days to improve matters before the Commission releases its report on progress in the last five years of democracy in Romania. The report covers all the events of the past few weeks, explained the source.
As far as the European Commission is concerned, fast action is required because these things have a natural tendency to deteroriate rapidly, said the source. The Commission will be keeping an eye on other aspects of the Romanian legal system as well and ensuring that EU law is not infringed. If it is, then the Commission would have a means of applying immediate pressure because unlike with the recent abuses by the Hungarian government, the Romanian case involves faulty transposition of EU rules rahter than the constitutional functioning of the country. The Commission's legal powers are limited in this respect. It can only apply political pressure at the moment by means of the CVM report, and the link with the Schengen Area or through Article 7 of the EU treaty whereby, in the event of proven violation of European standards, the European institutions can deprive a member state of voting rights at the Council of Ministers. The source suggests that the removal of voting rights could well be suggested if the situation continues to deteriorate, commenting: “This is no doubt a weapon available to us as, for us, all Treaty articles are valid”.. (SP/transl.fl)