Brussels, 22/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 22 January, the European Commission presented an overall positive report on the efforts made by Romania to improve the independence of the judiciary and the integrity of the institutions, despite new concerns which came to light just before Christmas. The Commission was, however, slightly less convinced by Bulgaria, whose efforts it described as still “insufficient”.
Bulgaria had not been the subject of the Commission report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) for 18 months. Then, the country was judged slightly more positively than Romania, which was starting to enter the serious institutional crisis which set the Romanian President Traian Basescu against Prime Minister Victor Ponta. It was also agreed that Bulgaria would not be the subject of a CVM report until late 2013, whilst Romania was scrutinised once again in a report published early that year.
As the elections of May 2013 led to a series of demonstrations in the country and once again raised issues regarding certain government appointments, Bulgaria has now received a less optimistic report. According to the president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, quoted in a press release, the report “shows that in Bulgaria there is a need to galvanise the forces in favour of reform and provide leadership. Core principles like the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary must be at the heart of the long-term strategy for reform. A political commitment to this approach, as well as concrete and practical measures in the short term, is the best way to bring the process forward and accelerate progress towards the CVM benchmarks”, he said.
The report flags up progress in certain areas: “there have been some improvements in appointment procedures, some useful managerial steps by the Prosecutor General and some progress by the Supreme Judicial Court on the workload issue”. However, doubts persist. The European Executive notes “repeated controversies such as appointments having to be aborted due to integrity issues”. The fact that convicted organised crime figures have escaped justice and a succession of revelations about political influence on the judicial system have affected public confidence. There remain very few cases where crimes of corruption or organised crime have been brought to conclusion in court, the Commission adds.
Bulgaria's problems emerged after the elections of spring 2013. The new prime minister, Plamen Orecharski, made a dubious appointment to the head of the Bulgarian National Security Agency. As this appointment was not confirmed, many Bulgarians took to the streets to call for a government it already felt was corrupt to step down.
Curiously, Romania, which was getting ready in early December to vote through “super-immunity” for its MPs and officials caught up in corruption scandals has come out a little better than Bulgaria. Although the Commission obviously reiterates the grave concerns caused by this change to the criminal code in late 2013 (the Romanian Constitutional Court has since invalidated the measures), it states that the country has “made progress in many areas since the previous CVM reports. The track record of the key judicial and integrity institutions has remained positive, even in the face of sometimes difficult circumstances. Necessary and long-awaited legislative changes have remained on track, and a spirit of cooperation between judicial institutions and the ministry of justice is helping managerial issues to be tackled”.
However, there is one unanswered question hanging over Bucharest: that of the sustainability of the progress made and the “irreversible” nature of the reforms, which is not yet entirely certain, as illustrated by the fragility of the appointment procedures for high office, which have led to “mixed results”, according to the Commission. The two countries, which are not ready to join Schengen, will be the subject of a further assessment in early 2015. (SP/transl.fl)