Eurasia Press & News
BRUSSELS: Romania has taken some “backward steps” in fighting corruption despite European Union criticism, while fellow EU newcomer Bulgaria has made a number of positive moves, the bloc’s executive arm said yesterday. In interim reports on each, the European Commission told both countries, the poorest members of the bloc, that they had to do more to fight corruption and organised crime ahead of full-year reports this summer. The EU executive last July suspended aid of 500 million euros ($646mn) in an indictment of corruption in Bulgaria.
The reports said Bulgaria had taken initial reform steps, but there was sharper comment on Romania. “To demonstrate systematic and irreversible change, Bulgaria needs to show that it has put in place an autonomously functioning, stable judiciary which is able to detect and sanction conflicts of interests, corruption and organised crime and preserve the rule of law,” the Bulgarian report said.
The Romanian report said government amendments to the civil code had still to be adopted and shortcomings identified in July remained. “It is important that the Romanian authorities regain momentum on judicial reform and the fight against corruption so as to reverse certain backward movements of recent months.
It said it was crucial that Romania “achieve significant irreversible progress.” The reports made no mention of the risk of losing EU funds, though EU officials said this remained a possibility if the countries failed to show results
