Safeguarding the rule of law in an enlarged EU: the cases of Bulgaria and Romania

This report assesses the needs and options for monitoring and reinforcing the rule of law in an enlarged EU. It looks at the existing mechanisms for monitoring in the EU, the Council of Europe and the UN and identifies the gaps before suggesting solutions. The report includes case studies on Bulgaria and Romania that focus on the ways in which the two most recent member states of the EU have responded to the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism imposed on them at accession while giving an overview of the very different issues faced by each country in the context of the rule of law. These country reports feed into the overall analysis of the need for effective monitoring of the rule of law in the EU in general.