site.btaEC Indicates It Plans to Uncouple Bulgaria and Romania in Judicial Reform Monitoring

EC Indicates It Plans to Uncouple Bulgaria and Romania in Judicial Reform Monitoring

Brussels/Sofia, February 15 (BTA) - At a news briefing he held in Brussels jointly with the visiting Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker indicated that the Commission is ready to separate Bulgaria and Romania in its monitoring of the progress of their judicial reforms and combat against organized crime and high-level corruption under the so called Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). The cases of Romania and Bulgaria are not closely connected, and each country would see the CVM ended on its own merits, Junker said.

He also suggested that the monitoring of Romania is likely to be discontinued during his tenure.

The CVM was set in place in 2007 when Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU as a tool to enhance their efforts to reform their judicial systems and fight organized crime and curruption. The reports have so far been much critical of Bulgaria, recognizing some progress in the right direction but little tangible results. Romania, by contrast, have been showing visible results in the areas under monitoring

In what appears to be the only comment on the matter so far, Democrats for Strong Bulgaria leader Radan Kanev wrote in Facebook: "With an odd Luxembourg sense of humour and subtle derision at Bulgaria, a moment came that we have been dreading for the past five years. The border of real Europe moves towards the Danube due to the irresponsible attitude of the present [Bulgarian] government to the judicial reform. And due to one more concession to [MP/business owner Delyan] Peevski, [ABV leader Georgi] Purvanov and [Prosecutor General Sotir] Tsatsarov on December 12, 2015."

Kanev refers in his remark to the day when a majority in Parliament refused to support key aspects of the judicial reform package of then Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov.

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BTA's Brussels correspondent Nickolay Jeliazkov has contributed to this report.