Unless the Government substantially tackles the problems mentioned in the European Parliament's report on Romania, the EU accession could be postponed, Jonathan Scheele, head of the European Commission Delegation in Bucharest on Wednesday said.
"The 2007 accession will depend on a substantial progress in addressing the well-known issues," Scheele told a conference on the readiness for EU organised by Business Review.
Scheele warned about the "real danger" that Romania would not be able to function efficiently inside the EU. "If it is not ready, Romania will not benefit, but rather suffer as a result of the accession," the European official said.
He explained the action plan the Government committed to pursue in Brussels in response to the wave of criticism did not include anything new, did not address new issues and did not come up with new solutions, either. "It is just a plan. I have seen others. This set of actions should be the new basis for reform in key sectors, mentioned in the European Parliament's report," Scheele said.
The EU representative in Bucharest feels the Government must not react defensively to the criticism, but use it as material to help it identify problems and point it to solutions to address them.
"Although certain steps have been taken, the implementation of the anti-corruption policies has had limited impact," Scheele reiterated. The main reason behind this is that corruption prevention needs a sound public administration and a strong judicial system, but reform was lagging far behind in both sectors.
This is not the first European official and this is not the first time for the Union's Ambassador to blame corruption for Romania's difficulties during negotiations. Corruption, imperatively denounced, was also described as Romania's main problem by Baroness Emma Nicholson, European Parliament's rapporteur for Romania. Corruption, namely the high-level corruption, was also mentioned by EU's Commissioner for Enlargement Gunther Verheugen. He demanded the Government to stop pushing into the spotlight those low-level civil servants that have been caught red handed, and focus on the "big fish" instead. This was also the recommendation of all MEPs, as long as ridding itself of corruption, especially of that plaguing the political level is one of the requirements Romania has to meet in view of making the 2007 accession deadline.
Jonathan Scheele also talked about the "constant gap" between laws and the capability of the public administration to enforce them. razvan.voican@zf.ro
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