Csaba Sógor: The EU should adopt a more critical stance on the situation of the rule of law in Romania
The EU should adopt a more critical stance on the situation of the rule of law in Romania and should not end the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) concerning the functioning of the country’s justice system - asked Csaba Sógor in the European Parliament.
At the April 25 meeting of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee of the European Parliament, the RMDSZ MEP stated: “Desperate to see signs of progress on corruption issues, the European Commission has ignored significant concerns about standards of justice, procedural safeguards and infringements of basic principles of the rule of law in the country.”
When they joined the EU on 1 January 2007, Romania and Bulgaria still had progress to make in the fields of judicial reform, corruption and organised crime. The Commission set up the CVM as a transitional measure to assist the two countries to remedy these shortcomings. The objective of assessing Bulgaria and Romania after their accession is for these countries develop the effective administrative and judicial systems needed to deliver on the obligations of EU membership. For years Romanian authorities have been calling for putting an end to the mechanism, arguing that the country has made significant improvements in the fight against corruption and the strengthening of the institutions guaranteeing the rule of law.
According to Csaba Sógor, with the support of the EU Romania has made major progress in the area of the judiciary. However, the MEP also identified serious shortcomings: “Ten years after accession Romania is still on the bottom end of the corruption indexes, laws are still not applied uniformly and justice is still selective” - said the MEP.
During the debate the RMDSz MEP explained: “National minorities have already experienced that once pressure from the EU is lifted, even progress achieved can be reversed: laws for their protection adopted prior to accession are not being applied in practice, their mother tongue use is still being obstructed, and their community church properties retroceded after the regime change are once again being renationalized through court decisions. A telling example of the situation in Romania is the investigation by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) into the establishment by the Catholic Church in 2015 of a school in Hungarian minority language in which 400 children study at present. In no other democratic European country would the establishment of a school be sanctioned by anticorruption prosecutors.”
The RMDSZ MEP emphasized that in this context the EU should take a closer and more critical look at how the rule of law and the justice system function in Romania and not put an end to the CVM. As he said: “This issue goes to the core of the expectations of Romanians from European accession: Beside an improvement in their living conditions, most citizens of Romania hoped that joining the EU would on the long term bring them better, more transparent and more efficient governance and less corruption.” Ten years ago, thanks to the CVM, Romania has embarked on such a route, but now it is also the responsibility of the EU institutions to guarantee that it goes further - argued Csaba Sógor.
