EC report: Romania makes progress in justice reform and fight against corruption, but further steps needed

Romania has made progress in the judicial reform and the fight against corruption in the past year, but further steps are required in order to reach the goals set under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), according to the European Commission’s report published on Wednesday, January 28. "Romania is on the right course and needs to stick to it. Tackling corruption remains the biggest challenge and the biggest priority. We welcome the progress achieved over the past year, which will need to be confirmed in 2015. Confidence among Romanians about the judiciary in general, and the anti-corruption prosecution in particular, has increased also in view of an increased professionalism in the judicial system as a whole,” said European Commission’s first vice-president Frans Timmermans. According to the report, the action Romania’s key judicial and integrity institutions have taken, in the past twelve months, to address high-level corruption has maintained an impressive momentum. This increased the Romanians’ confidence in the justice system and the anti-corruption prosecutors. An increased professionalism in the judiciary as a whole, including a willingness to defend the independence of the judiciary in a more consistent way, have supported this trend, he report shows. At the same time, the report talks about the need to consolidate and further secure the progress. It points out that many legislative issues remain outstanding and that inconsistency in some court decisions raise concern. The report also criticizes some of the Romanian Parliament’s decisions on whether to allow the prosecution to treat parliamentarians like other citizens, which “seem to lack objective criteria and a reliable timetable”. The Parliament has also provided examples of reluctance to apply final court or Constitutional Court decisions. The Commission believes that Romania’s monitoring process under the CVM should continue. “By continuing together under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, which has clear support from citizens, the Commission further support Romanian efforts to deliver on the independence of senior judicial appointments, closing the outstanding legislative initiatives and systematically fighting corruption," Timmermans concluded. The full report on Romania is available here. editor@romania-insider.com