Romania’s judicial system. Judge and jury

One key obstacle to Romania's EU entry

NOW that Romania has won recognition from the European Commission as a functioning market economy, its ramshackle legal system is the biggest threat to its hopes of joining the EU in 2007. Its courts are short of judges, its judges short of training. Some laws are out of date, others are new and untested. Lack of judicial independence is made worse by a political system riddled with cronyism and corruption. According to Romania's justice minister, Cristian Diaconescu, more than 2m lawsuits and criminal cases are outstanding, some dating almost to the communist era. The EU wants long-term judicial reforms well under way before Romania joins.

Mr Diaconescu claims that his government is equal to the task. It has just bolstered judicial independence, at least on paper, by switching powers to promote and punish judges from the justice ministry to a “supreme council of magistrates” that represents the judges themselves. Specialised commercial courts are being set up; family courts will follow. The justice ministry has called for a “national centre for integrity”, an odd-sounding watchdog that would make a public fuss or demand an investigation if it spotted, or was tipped off about, prima facie cases of corruption.

The EU has also voiced concerns about the judicial system in Bulgaria, the other candidate for membership in 2007. It declared last month that pre-trial investigation of serious criminal cases in Bulgaria was slow, complicated and prone to political interference.

One EU official suggests that judicial reform tends to lag in candidate countries, including those that joined in May, because the EU cannot offer a standard model for organising police forces, courts or national legal systems. Each country in the EU does such things in its own way. The only requirement is that each system must command the trust and respect of other EU governments. And here, it seems, Romania in particular still has far to go.

Romania's judicial system is one key obstacle to Romania's EU entry.