When the <http://www.tol.org/client/article/21732-when-the-cats-away.html> Cat's Away Romanian politicians and judges tend to get a lot more casual about corruption. <http://www.tol.org/client/article/21732-when-the-cats-away.html#author_bio> by TOL 20 August 2010 A month after Bucharest got its knuckles rapped, again, by the EU for backtracking on political corruption and judicial independence, Romania's president is wondering if the rebuke will threaten his country's entry into Europe's free-transit Schengen zone.
Let's hope so. It's not that we wish hardship on Romania's businesses as they try to move their goods through Europe. It's that the country's politicians seem most motivated when under some kind of threat. Take away that threat and they tend to behave as though the boss has just left the room. The case of the National Integrity Agency, which was spotlighted in <http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat_general/cvm/index_en.htm> Brussels' critical report last month, demonstrates the point. The watchdog agency was established in May 2007, although the groundwork was lain before the country's January 2007 entry into the EU. A response to the union's concern over corruption in the country, it investigates the income statements and possible conflicts of interests of politicians and judges. >From its birth, the agency has been a bone of contention between political factions. The resulting squabbles have only underlined the rift between President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Emil Boc on one hand, and the opposition on the other. In its three years - with Romania safely inside the EU club - the agency has been defanged. On 15 April, for instance, the Constitutional Court declared it unconstitutional. The decision came on an appeal by Senator Serban Bradisteanu that followed the agency's attempt to seize 4 million euros' worth of his assets after he was found guilty of corruption and embezzlement. As a result of the court's ruling, parliament changed the law so that fines, instead of criminal perjury charges, can be levied against officials who fill in their declarations of wealth incorrectly. The agency also no longer requires declarations of wealth for candidates and can no longer convene investigative committees to appeals courts determine whether or not to hear a case. The agency is left as little more than a means for collecting and storing declarations of wealth and fining those who don't file on time. Monica Macovei, a former minister of justice who was much respected in Brussels until being hounded out of office by the opposition, remarked that the new law "reflects perfectly well the aversion of politicians toward such public declarations of wealth and how they took advantage of this decision of the Constitutional Court to go even further when it comes to satisfying their own interests away from the public eye." But even those changes have not survived judicial scrutiny. They were struck down by the Constitutional Court in July. An extraordinary session of the Senate will be held next week to debate the law. In its July report, Brussels zeroed in on the agency's plight, and on Romanian lawmakers' overreach. "The law adopted by the parliament has weakened the efficiency of [the agency's] functioning in domains that have nothing to do with the decision of the Constitutional Court," the report states. "As such, an important impediment and means for sanctioning corruption has thus been lost." It seems that those means were partially lost as soon as Brussels lost the leverage of the accession process. Seven of the nine judges to have ruled the agency unconstitutional are themselves under investigation for omitting goods and income from their wealth disclosures. Catalin Macovei, the agency's president, said wealth statements from a quarter of the members of parliament are also being investigated. As The Diplomat Bucharest, a monthly magazine, notes, "The trend is that Romania changes its game plan when its hand is forced by a larger player." The magazine says the EU, the World Bank, and the IMF missed an opportunity when they granted Bucharest a 20 billion euro loan package last year without attaching anti-corruption conditions. Basescu noted somewhat shamefacedly that Romania is probably the first country to be criticized for not respecting its commitments to the EU. "The phrasing that there is no political will in Romania is a particularly strong one," he said of one of the report's criticisms, perhaps feeling the sting. It was Basescu who put into words what surely was on the minds of many who read the report: that Romania's entry into the Schengen zone, slated for March, could hang in the balance. "We deserve to be accepted into the Schengen area," he said. Perhaps. But even if Romania proves him right, will it be for only long enough to make it past the entry gate? Anyone who has watched Bucharest long enough needs to wonder, what happens then? C Transitions Online 2010 ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." Aboneaza-te la <mailto:ngo_list-subscr...@yahoogroups.com> ngo_list: o alternativa moderata (un pic) la [ngolist] Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?
