Former PM Adrian Nastase portrayed in a New York Times corruption analysis

Newsroom 30/10/2012 | 11:02

The New York Times has highlighted recently the case of corruption where former PM Adrian Nastase was accused and is currently imprisoned. The fact that he now occupies a cell measuring four square meters and he writes on his “jailhouse” blog about how prisoners ate cabbage and potatoes, braved rats and had hot water for two hours twice a week is considered “as a seminal moment in the evolution of a young democracy.”

Moreover, NYT considers that “analysts here and abroad say the Nastase case has come to reveal as much about Romania’s political polarization and dysfunction as its halting steps toward greater democracy. It comes amid heightened fears in the European Union that its newest and weakest members are not up to the task of rooting out corruption that is a legacy of decades of Communist rule and, indeed, of weak governance before that.”

The publication also stated that the European Union, with 27 member nations, is so concerned about creeping lawlessness among its new members that Romania and its neighbor Bulgaria, which both entered in 2007, have not joined the bloc’s passport/visa-free travel area. On Thursday, October 25, the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, said concerns about corruption and fraud in Romania had prompted it to block E.U. development aid, worth billions of euros.