`Further progress needed` in Romania`s judiciary reform, EC report says
Bucharest, January 31 (AZERTAC). Romania must do more to deliver on respect for rule of law and judicial independence, having implemented some but not all the recommendations made in the annual Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) report from July 2012, the European Commission said on January 30 in a new CVM progress report.
When Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in January 2007, their inadequacies in fighting organised crime and corruption and in reforming the judiciary led to the two newcomer countries being subjected to the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism to bring them up to the bloc`s standards in this area. In recent years, continued CVM monitoring has become an obstacle in the way of the two countries joining the Schengen visa-free travel area. The new report presented the Commission`s on the steps Romania has taken in the past six months and shows where further steps are needed, the EC said in a statement. The period covered all but two months of the government headed by prime minister Victor Ponta, who took office in May 2012. Early on, the efforts of Ponta`s coalition to unseat president Traian Basescu in an impeachment referendum has drawn harsh criticism from EU institutions, which said that such actions were a threat to the rule of law in the country. Since then, Brussels and Bucharest have mended fences somewhat, with the progress report noting that “respect for the Constitution and the decisions of the Constitutional Court has been restored”, but also pointed out that “the lack of respect for the independence of the judiciary and the instability faced by judicial institutions remain a source of concern.”
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