International

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong is urging the European Commission to take action against Romania and Bulgaria. The demand comes in response to this week's news that once again progress in the struggle against corruption and for good governance in these countries has been unsatisfactory. In Romania there are even rumours of deliberate obstruction by politicians.

In progress reports published by the European Commission earlier this week, harsh conclusions are drawn. In Bulgaria, though the political will to reform exists, concrete results are still taking far too long to achieve. In Romania the situation is even more worrying, because the report indicates that there may well be 'insufficient political will' to carry out the necessary reforms. "On the one hand the Commission draws clear conclusions," says De Jong, "but on the other it fails to link these with any consequences. I have also, therefore, asked the Commission to describe what measures they intend to take against Romania. It seems to me a matter of simple logic that when there is evidence of corruption, certain |EU subsidies might no longer be paid out. In addition, I have asked both the Commission and the Council of Ministers if under the present circumstances they cannot in any event abandon the abolition of internal border controls, because organised crime and corruption are spreading ever more rapidly through Europe."

Romania and Bulgaria have, right from the start, failed to meet the demands which EU membership places on the quality of a country's rule of law. For this reason the SP voted in 2006 against the admission of the two. Today, prompted by the new report, the SP has again put questions to both the European Commission and the Council. "We continue to pursue the facts," says De Jong. "Within the European Union there is ever-increasing cross-border criminality, much of it originating in Romania and Bulgaria, such as the gangs who go from town to town holding up shops and trucks. I find the Commission and the Council insufficiently vigorous in their approach to this. Many shopkeepers have been forced to close down as a result of such attacks. It's in times of economic crisis above all that we could do without such disasters."