EC: Romania hasn’t met all targets for removal of judiciary monitorization under MCV

In the latest report of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, on the assessment of the local judiciary under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, experts have concluded that Romania still has to carry out reforms in order to secure the removal of the MCV by the end of the presidency of Jean-Claude Juncker.

“The momentum built up so far allows the focus to shift to the key remaining steps which need to be taken to reach the CVM objectives and therefore to complete this important process under this Commission mandate, in line with the goal set by President Juncker.

The speed of this process depends how quickly the Romanian authorities are able to take the remaining steps in an irreversible way, in a way that does not call into question the progress made so far. I hope in 2017 we will see the speed, determination and internal safeguards needed to complete the necessary reforms and ensure the irreversibility of the results,” said Frans Timmermans, the first vice-president of the EC.

The EC said that some of the issues mentioned in the previous reports haven’t been solved yet. The Commission has made a series of recommendations that focus on the responsibility and accountability required by the Romanian authorities and the internal safeguards needed to ensure the irreversibility of the results.

The MCV was rolled out in 2007 for Romania and Bulgaria and is an instrument designed to assess the progress against the commitments made by two member states in the areas of judicial reform and the fight against corruption.

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Corruption remains an important issue for Romanians, says survey

According to an Eurobarometer, which was published on Wednesday alongside the MCV report, over nine in ten respondents from Romania said that corruption was an important problem.

Over four in ten respondents in Romania thought that the situation concerning judicial shortcomings in their country had improved compared with ten years ago, with just over a third saying that it had improved slightly, and less than one in ten saying that it had improved a lot.

The report has been published on the back on ongoing controversies in Romania regarding the proposed change of the Penal Code and the enforcement of a pardon bill. President Klaus Iohannis has initiated procedures for a referendum on the continuation of the anti-corruption efforts in Romania.

Ovidiu Posirca