Romania, among the most politically opressive states in the EU

Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Latvia received the lowest scores for political and civil liberties among EU states included in Fredom House’s report presented Wednesday in the European Parliament.

The four countries received the lowest score (2) when graded for “political rights” and “civil liberties”. The other member states in the EU received the maximum grade (1). Freedom House’s grading system starts with 7, which is the worst possible score for this category that analyses the state of “free societies” in the world.

However, no European state scored worse than 2 for political rights and civil liberties. Out of the 28 states in the EU, they are all considered “free societies” according to Freedom House. By comparison, only 68% of countries on the American continentes qualify for that rating.

Why were Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Greece rated lower than the other EU member states?

“For Romania and Bulgaria, corruption and separation of power in the State are huge problems. Bulgaria has suffered in the past and it has taken a step back from normal governing procedures. In Romania I know that there were problems in the past regarding the efforts to suspend the president, but he won a referendum and this was accepted and he is still president. This is a positive thing”, Arch Puddington explained, the Vicepresident in charge of Research at Freedom House.

Puddington also remarks that Romania and Bulgaria are more vulnerable to corruption, given their communist background.

“It is also worth mentioning that Romania, Bulgaria and other new member states have less experience with democratic leadership than the Netherlands or Belgium for example. In this regard, it’s only normal that scores would be lower”.

Regarding Latvia, Puddington said:

“There are problems with the separation of powers in the state, people are held in detention for months without a trial and there’s also a problem with the freedom of the press and with lack of transparency”,