Bucharest tackles corruption for EU test

By David Cronin in Bucharest

Date: 23/09/04

HOPES are high in Romania that the European Commission will shortly recommend that its talks on joining the Union be wound up by the end of this year.

The EU executive is expected to give approval when it publishes a monitoring report on the country on 6 October. Should everything go according to plan, that will lead to Romania joining the Union alongside Bulgaria in 2007. With 22 million inhabitants, Romania would become the seventh- largest member state.

But senior figures in Adrian Nastase's government are candid about how some of the problems previously identified by the Commission as barriers to Romania's membership bid remain acute. Bribery is arguably the most serious.

In 2002, Transparency International named Romania as the most corrupt of all the EU's aspiring member states. The 2004 annual report by another campaign group, Amnesty International, makes plain that not enough has been done in the interim to weed out corruption. "Widespread graft, affecting all aspects of society, undermined the government's ability to promote respect for basic rights and to improve the economy," the human rights lobby noted. "Relatively few public officials were held to account, politically or criminally, for alleged abuses of power."

Vasile Pucas, Romania's chief negotiator with the Union, works in an office dwarfed by Nicolae Ceausescu's monument to megalomania, the 21-wing People's Palace. He claims the current government is the first since the execution of the communist leader in 1989 to take on corruption.

"There are still a lot of stereotypes from the 1990s regarding Romania," says Puscas. "I'm not saying there isn't corruption here. Corruption is not only a problem for the public administration. It has truly become a political problem in Romania. But we are ready to work with Amnesty International and Transparency to change and learn. Two years ago we completed our anti-corruption legislation; we are now in the stage of implementation."

Understanding why public servants resort to taking bribes is not difficult. The typical wage in this country for doctors, teachers and police officers is €90-130 per month. Senior civil servants earn about l400; judges in the court of appeal €1,000. Although business leaders use the low labour costs as the chief selling point to attract investors to Romania, they readily admit that these paltry salaries are forcing large numbers to turn to bribes solely to make ends meet.

But Adrian Miclescu, the deputy-general prosecutor in the National Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (NAPO), says: "The fact that a police officer has a small salary is not an excuse to commit crime. This goes also for a public servant, who earns pretty much the same."

Since its inception in September 2002, NAPO's investigations have resulted in 1,000 people being sent to trial for offences in which a total of l500 million were involved. Among these are four ministers, four state secretaries, a director of the EU's farm aid programme SAPARD, ten mayors and 167 police officers.

However, several high-profile cases of alleged irregularities have not reached court. These include Hildegard Puwak, who resigned as Europe minister in October 2003 after being accused of netting up to €150,000 in funds from the EU's education scheme Leonardo, by siphoning it through her family's private business. After investigating the case, NAPO decided there were no grounds on which to prosecute Puwak or any of her family.

To date, Romania has closed 25 of the 30 thematic chapters around which the negotiations revolve. Three of the remainder are tricky: competition (because it entails scrapping the long-standing practice of showering industry with state aid), environment (because it involves closing down some firms that were heavy polluters) and justice and home affairs.

Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana calls the latter category "probably the most difficult chapter of them all". Under the current judicial system, he says, cases have to go through three layers of bureaucracy. "Imagine a businessman who has to get money back from a client," says Geoana, who is widely tipped to take over as premier after the November general election. "It takes three or four years before it happens with the courts. This is something that is insane."

The government is carving up the court system, to solve the problem. According to Geoana, 90% of cases in the future will be decided in a single court. Specialized courts are being set up for commercial disputes, labour relations, juvenile offences and family law.

In addition, three laws on the independence of the judiciary are scheduled to come into effect at the end of this month. As a result, appointments to court posts will be handled by a council elected by judges and prosecutors, instead of politicians.

The Commission report on 6 October is expected to say that Romania is a functioning market economy but will insist that the country needs to press ahead with reforms in order to be able to withstand competitive pressure in the EU's internal market (a condition for accession).

Public opinion appears to be overwhelmingly in favour of EU membership in Romania. Polls suggest that 84% of Bucharest's 2.5 million inhabitants want to join; the figure for the entire country is 76%.

However, Geoana admits that "Romania is still perceived as a country that is too poor, with too many problems".

The country's overcrowded child protection centres and revelations about networks selling abandoned children to the West, have further harmed Romania's image. Drawing the country closer to the EU is perceived as vital in overcoming this legacy.

Article previews the European Commission's monitoring report on Romania due on 6 October 2004. In it the Commission is expected to recommend negotiations to be concluded by the end of 2004, three of the remaining chapters being competition, environment and justice and home affairs. Corruption is thought to be an especially problematic topic in the country. Should everything go according to plan, that will lead to Romania joining the Union alongside Bulgaria in 2007. With 22 million inhabitants, Romania would become the seventh- largest member state.

Bucharest tackles corruption for EU test, European Voice http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/bucharest-tackles-corruption-for-eu-test/50692.aspx

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