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The Commission's interim reports on the progress made by Romania and Bulgaria on judiciary reform and fighting corruption and organised crime show that both countries must seriously step up their efforts ahead of the next detailed evaluation due in mid-2008. Otherwise they could face sanctions, Brussels warned. Related:

European Union Commission: Report On Progress in Bulgaria under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (4 February 2008) Commission: Report On Progress in Romania under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (4 February 2008) Commission memo: Interim Report on Progress in Bulgaria with Judiciary Reform and the Fight against Corruption and Organised Crime (4 February 2008) [FR] [DE] Commission memo: Interim Report on Progress in Romania with Judiciary Reform and the Fight against Corruption (4 February 2008) [FR] [DE] Commission: Assessing ongoing progress by Bulgaria and Romania [FR] [DE]

Having consistently made 'technical' progress, Bulgaria and Romania need help to crack down on corruption, the European Commission said on 22 July with the publication of its annual monitoring reports, pledging further support while the two EU newcomers remain under scrutiny.

Background: When Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU on 1 January 2007, shortcomings remained regarding judicial reform and the fight against corruption - and in the case of Bulgaria, the fight against organised crime. These shortcomings carried the risk that the two countries would be unable to apply Community law correctly and their citizens would not be able to fully enjoy their rights as EU citizens.  A Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) was set up to assist both member states. Moreover, the European Commission retained the right to use special safeguards, included in the accession treaties and invoked against new member states as a last resort. If used, the process could lead the EU to refuse to recognise court decisions or even freeze payments of EU funds. Such an unprecedented decision, if applied, would also badly hurt the countries' reputations.  In a turnaround compared to previous monitoring reports, where Bulgaria was invariably portrayed as the laggard in meeting EU standards on judicial reform and fighting corruption (EurActiv 24/07/09), the Brussels executive unveiled reports last February which depicted Romania as the slow performer this time (EurActiv 13/02/09).  The annual reports on Bulgaria and Romania are prepared by the Commission's secretariat-general under the authority of President José Manuel Barroso, in agreement with Vice-President Jacques Barrot. Recently the French Senate cautioned against "stigmatising" the EU's most recent members and suggested fine-tuning the CVM (EurActiv 30/06/09).