November 22 (SeeNews) - Romania has made sufficient progress to meet recommendations under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) and the mechanism should be closed, the European Commission (EC) said on Tuesday.
"The Commission concludes that the progress made by Romania is sufficient to meet the CVM commitments made at the time of its accession to the EU and that all benchmarks can be satisfactorily closed. The assessment also takes account of the developing landscape for the rule of law in the EU, and in particular Romania's full engagement in the rule of law report cycle," it said in a press release.
The Commission assessed that Romania has made important progress on judicial reform and fight against corruption.
From now on, the Commission will no longer monitor or report on Romania under the CVM, but monitoring will continue within the annual rule of law cycle. Reporting will be consolidated in the Commission's annual Rule of Law Report, as for all member states, it added.
Before reaching a final decision, the Commission will consider the observations of the Council, as well as of the European Parliament. The Commission also said that it will revert to this issue in the case of both Bulgaria and Romania in the coming months.
The CVM was established at the accession of Romania to the EU in 2007 as a transitional measure to facilitate Romania’s continued efforts to reform its judiciary and step up the fight against corruption.
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