The European Commission is not yet in a position to decide on the end of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanisms (CVM), which have applied since 2007 to Bulgaria and Romania, said the Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourova, before the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties on Thursday 10 September. On Wednesday 23 September, it will publish a first report on respect for the rule of law in all Member States.
The Vice-President pointed out that the recommendations made to the two countries in the latest CVM reports issued in October 2019 (see EUROPE 12354/3) had not yet been fully implemented.
Unsurprisingly, much of the discussion focused on Bulgaria, which has been rocked by protests for weeks over suspicions of corruption surrounding Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s GERB party affiliated to the European People’s Party.
Assuring that the Commission was closely monitoring the situation, Ms Jourova recalled that peaceful demonstrations remained a “fundamental right”, denouncing in passing the violence on the ground, while some elected representatives criticised the weakness of the European institution’s reaction to the current leadership.
The Vice-President’s task is a difficult one: the former President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, had promised that the CVM mechanisms for the two countries would end under his mandate. Indeed, last October, the Commission considered that Sofia had made sufficient progress to be exempted from supervision (see EUROPE 12354/3).
On Thursday, therefore, Ms Jourova had to explain why the European institution could no longer make such a commitment. Many recommendations on the fight against corruption are still “open”, she asserted. In particular, she invited Bulgaria to consult again the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe on a draft law concerning the modalities of suspension of judges and prosecutors.
She also considered that it was “premature to give a date” for the end of the CVM mechanisms. “You have to see the situation in the country and whether there have been any setbacks”, she said.
Romania. The Vice-Chairperson also considered that Romania had not yet implemented all the recommendations addressed to it.
The mechanism to assess anti-corruption and judicial reform “should be specific and temporary”, Ms Jourova said. “We had planned to terminate it after 10 years and to continue with standardised monitoring”, for example through possible infringement proceedings or the so-called ‘Article 7’ procedures, but “there are still things to be done and a list of things to be done”, she added.
Several representatives asked whether these reports under the CVM mechanism still make sense when there will be an annual report on the rule of law in all Member States. Ms Jourova assured that there would be no overlap. The first report will be broader and will address issues not included in the CVM reports, such as press freedom. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)