The European Commission issued its latest reports on steps taken by Bulgaria and Romania to meet their commitments on judicial reform and the fight against corruption, and in the case of Bulgaria organised crime, in the context of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM).
The report on Bulgaria looks at the progress made over the past year to meet the final 17 recommendations issued by the Commission in the January 2017 report and positively notes Bulgaria’s continued efforts and determination to implement those recommendations.
Reference: I-163293 Date: 13/11/2018 Duration: 02:32
Languages: ORIGINAL © European Union, 2018 / Source: EC – Audiovisual Service
The Commission is confident that Bulgaria – if it pursues the current positive trend – will be able to fulfil all the remaining recommendations and thereby the outstanding benchmarks. This will enable the CVM process for Bulgaria to then be concluded before the end of this Commission’s mandate – in line with the orientation given by President Jean-Claude Juncker when he started his term of office.
For Romania, the report notes that while the country has taken some steps to implement the final 12 recommendations issued by the Commission in January 2017, recent developments have reversed the course of progress and called into question the positive assessment made back in January 2017.
The recommendations are no longer sufficient to meet the orientation given by President Jean-Claude Juncker to conclude the CVM process before the end of this Commission’s mandate. Therefore, today’s report sets out a number of additional recommendations for immediate follow up. The immediate implementation of the additional measures is essential to put the reform process back on track and resume the path towards the conclusion of the CVM as set out in the January 2017 report.
Press releases are available online on the reports for Bulgaria and Romania, and a Memo provides more information about the CVM process and the benchmarks and recommendations.
The CVM Reports are available online here. (For more information: Christian Wigand – Tel.: +32 229 62253; Kasia Kolanko –Tel.: +32 229 6344)