The European Commission is likely to lift the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, through which Brussels monitors the progress Bulgaria and Romania are making in justice and home affairs, in July 2012.
In the summer of next year, exactly five years after the release of the first monitoring report on problem areas such as organized crime and judicial reform, a comprehensive assessment of the achievements in this period will be made, to be followed by a proposal for the lifting of the mechanism.
For this to happen Brussels will demand that Bulgaria and Romania implement the recommendations of this year’s reports and overcome the red flag areas.