EU Cites Corruption

The European Commission said Romania’s reform was “fragmented,” and questioned Romania’s record on fighting corruption. “It is striking that virtually none of the cases of highest public interest have yet reached a decision,” the report said.   

Bulgaria fared worse. While Bulgaria had recorded more criminal convictions overall last year than it had in recent years, the report described Bulgaria as home to organized crime figures who operate with impunity and authority figures who barely operate at all. “Killings linked with organized crime continue, and known criminals are not apprehended,” the report said. “Although indications of fraud and corruption (including collusion with organized crime) are abundant in the public domain, law-enforcement agencies seem reluctant to take the initiative to start an investigation.”

No Political Will

The report found no political will to attack these ills head-on.
 
“We have seen that a number of things have been done, other things need to be done, and so the focus is not on changing the architecture, but on completing the house,” said EC spokesman Johannes Laitenberger in a statement.

The Commission will be monitoring both countries for another year. It says there are 21 areas in which Bulgaria needs to do better, and 16 for Romania – including implementing anti-corruption laws and boosting the independence of judges.

When both countries joined, they were placed under what the EU called a “cooperation and verification mechanism,” an unprecedented monitoring of the new members to address their shortcomings in judicial reform, corruption and organized crime. Bulgaria last year saw €500 million in EU subsidies frozen over the country’s lack of progress.

For Bulgaria, the report comes on the heels of an election that ousted the Socialist-led government. The election winners, Sofia Mayor Boiko Borisov’s GERB party, likely will form a government with other center-right parties, and will be under pressure to prove that they can get the job done.

“We failed to show that the fight against organized crime and corruption is our priority. This must happen now,” prosecutor Margarita Popova, who’s been tapped to be Bulgaria’s new justice minister, told Bulgarian television.

-- Beth Kampschror