“European leaders plan to send envoys to monitor Romania’s commitment to democracy in the country, officials said on Monday, stepping up international pressure on Bucharest amid concern about the political crisis in one of the EU’s newest member states,” according to an article in The Financial Times.
The piece also points out that Romania will be given “until the end of the year” to fulfill the demands made by the European Commission, and “reaffirm the rule of law and the independence of its judiciary.”
A sensitive EU report assessing Romania’s progress on fighting corruption and bringing its judicial system towards European norms is expected to warn on Wednesday that a power struggle in Bucharest risks reversing all the efforts made by the country in recent years, says the piece.
“Romania was doing very well in terms of modernizing its judiciary and fighting organized crime but recent events have changed everything,” said an EU official familiar with the report. “Recent events risk reversing progress made so far.”
“EU commissioners, who met in Brussels on Monday to finalize the report, are overwhelmingly in favor of sending a strong signal to Bucharest to address threats to democracy,” says the Financial Times.
Otilia Haraga