The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has expressed “deep concerns” about sweeping political changes in Romania and called on the Romanian government to take steps to allay concerns about the independence of the judiciary and respect for the rule of law.
In a statement, Van Rompuy said that he had urged the Romanian government “to address the issues identified by the [European] Commission as problematic” in a pending review.
His comments came after a meeting with Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta, whom the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, asked last Friday to come to Brussels to explain how and why, in the space of four days last week, the president was suspended, two speakers of parliament removed and the ombudsman fired.
Ponta also met Barroso today. Barroso issued a statement echoing Van Rompuy’s concerns.
The changes, many of them made through emergency decrees, have led to clashes with the constitutional court, whose powers have also been diminished. One of the steps the constitutional court has objected to is a change in the threshold required to impeach the president, Traian Băsescu, in a popular referendum called for 29 July.
The Commission is currently assessing whether the changes are in keeping with EU standards on democracy and the rule of law in its member states. The Council of Europe has also asked its constitutional experts, in the Venice Commission, to provide an opinion on the legality of the government’s actions.
Ponta said yesterday that Romania will “act immediately if something is not considered to meet European standards” by the European Commission. “I came to Brussels to reaffirm our commitment to European values,” Ponta said.
Ponta and Romania’s justice minister, Titus Corlăţean, arrived yesterday for a series of meetings.
Ponta has met two European commissioners, Cecilia Malmström, whose portfolio is home affairs, and Dacian Cioloş, Romania’s representative in the Commission. He also met the European Parliament’s President Martin Schulz and two socialist leaders – Sergei Stanishev, leader of the Party of European Socialists (PES), and Hannes Swoboda, who leads the PES-based grouping in the European Parliament– as well as Graham Watson, representing the Liberal grouping in the European Parliament.
Corlăţean has held meetings with Viviane Reding, the European justice commissioner, and with Catherine Day, the Commission’s secretary-general.
The Commission’s initial appraisal of developments will be known on Wednesday (18 July) when European commissioners meet to discuss the Commission’s annual monitoring report on Romania, under the co-operation and verification mechanism (CVM) put in place after the two countries joined the EU in 2007.
Recent events will “significantly change the text” of the Romania report, an official said yesterday. “Romania was going in the right direction but this could put everything into question.”
Separately, developments in Romania were discussed yesterday in meetings between Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Barroso and Van Rompuy. The meetings were held at the request of Bulgaria, whose reforms of the judiciary and law enforcement are, like Romania’s, subject to continued surveillance by the Commission.
After his meeting with Borisov, Barroso clearly decoupled Bulgaria’s and Romania’s hopes of emerging from the regime. Barroso said he “took note of the recent progress made in Bulgaria and reiterated that the European Commission will treat each country on its own merits”.