The European Commission’s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) on Romania won’t be lifted this year, and its completion depends on what the country’s new Government and Parliament will do, European Commission Secretary General Paraskevi Michou (picture right) said on Thursday.

The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism was introduced by the European Commission when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU to monitor the progress of the two countries on the judicial reform, corruption fight, and, in the case of Bulgaria, to counter organized crime.

Paraskevi Michou has met with Romanian justice minister Florin Iordache (picture left) on Thursday. After the meeting, the Romanian minister said that Romania has met all the conditions provided in the CVM, and there are sufficient guarantees for the monitoring to be lifted this summer.

However, Michou said that the CVM wouldn't be lifted this year, and the report for 2016, which is to be completed later this month, shows that the country made some progress, but also took some steps back.

“I came to see the new Government, Parliament. We are now finalizing the CVM report. I came to convey the message that the report will most likely be completed this month. I came to say that we must continue the progress made. This year we look at the last decade, the good and bad things that have happened,” said Paraskevi Michou, reports local Mediafax.

For the CVM to be completed, the country’s new Government and Parliament will have to continue the efforts made so far in this sense.

“I came here to convey the message that we want a close cooperation so that we can get closer to the exit, but that depends on the work of the Parliament, the Government, the fulfillment of all criteria in a sustainable manner so that the progress will not be reversible. We agreed that we would work together to achieve this goal.”

Referring to the CVM report on 2016, which is to be present this month, Paraskevi Michou said that it’s not entirely positive, as although big progress were made in some areas, the country also took some steps back.

The last CVM report on Romania showed that the country made significant progress in fighting top-level corruption in recent years. This is why some politicians in Bucharest have been asking the European Commission to remove Romania from the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com