Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on progress in Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism

In the run-up to the accession of Romania to the EU in 2007, it was agreed that further work was needed in key areas to address shortcomings in judicial reform and in the fight against corruption. This led to the establishment of a framework to support Romania and to monitor progress in these areas, the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). Benchmarks were established in four areas: Judicial reform, integrity, the fight against high-level corruption, and the prevention and fight against corruption in the public sector. The Decision included regular reporting from the Commission, and provided that the mechanism will continue until the objectives of the CVM are met and all four benchmarks are satisfactorily fulfilled.

Five years after accession is an appropriate time to assess whether the objectives of the CVM have been fulfilled. The technical report accompanying this assessment summarises the key developments of the past five years. This report takes stock of what has been achieved so far and what remains to be accomplished. It covers both the legislation and tools which are in place, the elements of the legal framework which still need to be completed, implementation and also whether ownership is sufficiently embedded to maintain the direction of reform. In so doing, the Commission takes into account the sustainability and irreversibility of the reform process as the determining elements of its assessment.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)410: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:410:FIN

European Commission: SWD(2012)231: Technical report http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=SWD:2012:0231:FIN:EN:PDF

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