The European Commission will present on Wednesday its report on justice and the fight against corruption in Romania, after a last discussion on the report with European Commissioners. Considering the draft projects that circulated in the press, the document will note the progress registered by reforms in Romania but it will also criticize the authorities` lack of commitment and political cohesion in the fight against corruption.
The report is part of the monitoring and cooperation mechanism set up by the Union for both Romania and Bulgaria when the two countries joined the EU. Thus, Romania was valued six months after it joined the EU when officials recommended an extension of the mechanism.
Another report was released in February 2008 and was an intermediary one to the report to be released today, July 23, 2008. In the June 2007 report, the Commission's main recommendations presented an action plan for the judicial reform.
The 2007 report adopted a rough tone regarding the fight against corruption in Romania noting that the progress registered in Romania at that time was insufficient. The main recommendations in 2007:
Romania should adopt the new Civil Code and continue reforming the ne Penal Code to deal with all current personnel and organizational problems in the tribunal systemto assure legal and institutional stability of the anti-corruption frameworkto develop a nation wide anti-corruption strategyto consolidate the judicial system at all levels
The February 2008 intermediary report was a technical one which marked the progress made in the main four EU set objectives. The document read that even though laws are reformed, the actual practice still not changed. Moreover, the report underlines that there are 10 important high corruption cases that were postponed. EU officials declared at the time that the July
