CVM not to be lifted this year, says EC Deputy Secretary-General

The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) will not be lifted in 2017, announced Paraskevi Michou, acting Director-General for Justice and Consumers at the European Commission today in Bucharest.

The EC official met in Bucharest today with Romanian minister of Justice Florin Iordache, who said Romania met the requirements imposed through the CVM and expressed hopes it will be lifted soon. We presented the objectives Romania started off with in 2006 in relation with the MCV and showed that we fulfilled these conditions,” said Iordache after meeting with Paraskevi Michou, acting Director-General for Justice and Consumers at the European Commission.

“Now we are about the present the 2016 and we agreed to cooperate for the next phase of the upcoming year, but this year nothing will happen, the report is already completed. The next steps depend on what I have said. I came here to send you the message that we want a close collaboration in order for the CMV to be lifted, but this depends on the government’s work, that of the Parliament, of the fulfillment of all criteria set and of reforms to be sustainable and irreversible. I believe we agree that we must work together to reach this objective,” Paraskevi Michou said after a meeting with Romanian MPs.

Michou stated she came to meet the new Government and the Parliament, but also to inform that the CMV report will very likely be completed this month. “I didn’t come for conclusions […], I came here to say it is necessary to continue progress,” Paraskevi Michou said.

“As you know, this year we will look at the past ten years – at the positive and negative things that happened, progress made, but we need the progress to continue and I said we must work together. What the Commission and president Juncker would like to see if that we are workign to complete the CMV, but this depends on the Romanian Government and on the Parliament to accelerate, to move in the right direction and not a reversible one,” the EC official said.

Asked to assess whether the report is a positive one, Michou said: “When I look at the past ten years, in some areas there are very big progresses, in other areas there is progress, in a few areas there could be steps backward, and we are trying to provide the instruments to progress,” the EC Director-General for Justice and Consumers said.

Georgeta Gheorghe