(adds details, comments by Romania’s PM)
BUCHAREST (Romania), July 23 (SeeNews) - Romania needs to put more efforts into the reform of its judiciary and the fight against corruption, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
“Overall, the situation in Romania is a mixed picture. The fundamental elements of a functioning system are in place. But the foundation is still fragile and decisions on high level corruption are highly politicised. Commitment to reform by Romania’s key institutions and bodies is uneven,” the EU executive said in its monitoring report on Romania.
The country joined the EU together with its southern neighbour Bulgaria in January last year.
“While progress on judicial reform has been made, there is a need for the system to show there are penalties for high level corruption. The Commission strongly encourages Romania to intensify its reforms.”
“Only firm and deterrent convictions in high profile cases will demonstrate in a convincing manner that the system works.”
Romania needs to ensure a more transparent, and efficient judicial process notably by enhancing the capacity and accountability of the Superior Council of Magistracy, report and monitor the impact of the new civil and penal procedures codes.
It also has to establish, as foreseen, an integrity agency with responsibilities for verifying assets, incompatibilities and potential conflicts of interest, and for issuing mandatory decisions on the basis of which dissuasive sanctions can be taken, the Commission said.
"The message [of the EU] is it's time to do this," the Commission spokesperson Johannes Laitenberger told reporters in Brussels.
Romania has started to move into the right direction. The new institutions and processes need time to prove their effectiveness and should be allowed to continue on a steady course, the Commission said.
“I know that we still have a difficult path to walk. But I also know that Romania is stronger and better prepared than [it was] last year,” Romania’s Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said in a statement issued by the government’s press office.
The Commission said it considers support to be more effective than sanctions and will not invoke now the safeguard provisions set out in the Accession Treaty. The continuation of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism will be needed for some time.
In a separate report, the European Commission warned Bulgaria that the country needs to show results in fighting high level corruption and organised crime and banned two Bulgarian agencies from handling EU funds. It also adopted a separate report on the management of EU funds in Bulgaria.
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