Minister: CVM on Romania should be lifted this summer, the country meets all the conditions

Romania has met all the conditions provided in the European Commission’s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), and there are sufficient guarantees for the monitoring to be lifted this summer, Romanian justice minister Florin Iordache (picture left) said on Thursday after meeting with European Commission Deputy Secretary General Paraskevi Michou (picture right). 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. “We found that the objectives set in 2006, when the CVM was established, have been met. We continue our collaboration with the Commission, the progress made must be sustained for strengthening and consolidating the rule of law and judicial independence. At this moment, we have all the conditions secured for the CVM to be completed,” the Romanian minister wrote on his Facebook page after the meeting. Florin Iordache told News.ro that Romania has given a very clear signal that it has met all the obligations, and that the CVM should be lifted. He added that the preliminary report, which might be presented later this month, will show that Romania met the conditions provided in the Mechanism, the country took important steps, the rule of law is functional, and there are guarantees that it can continue without this verification mechanism. He also stated that he told the European Commission Deputy Secretary General that the justice works in Romania, that new penal codes have been introduced and applied, and that the Judicial Inspection, the National Integrity Agency, the National Anticorruption Department, and other institutions of the judiciary meet all conditions established by the CVM. Thus, the Mechanism should be lifted this summer and not in 2019 when Romania will take over the European Union presidency. 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. The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for Romania and Bulgaria could be expanded to all EU members Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com