Researchers Call for Abolition of EC Progress Reports on Bulgaria, Romania

The cooperation and verification mechanism (CVM) of the European Commission aimed at assisting the fight against corruption and organized crime in Bulgaria and Romania is inefficient, according to a group of researchers from the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski".

Sofia University researchers, as cited by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), argue that the CVM must be changed or terminated because it only causes damage in its current form.

Prof. Georgi Dimitrov from the Department of European Studies at the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" argues that the reports are very loose-textured and diffuse that their content remains hard to figure out by the authorities in Bulgaria and Romania.

He argues that the system is plagued by incomprehension of the systematic relationship between underground economy, a vulnerable democracy, and obliging courts.

"It does not take into account that the national situations systematically resist policies on the fight against corruption," Dimitrov says.

"Corruption is not a person or a party and this is not included in the approach," he claims.

The researchers do not commit to a concrete recipe for resolving the problem but call on EU Member States to open negotiations on changing the cooperation and verification mechanism in order to legitimize external pressure for reforms over the governments of Bulgaria and Romania.

"Unless this happens, the monitoring mechanism must be terminated," the researchers say.

Political scientist Stoycho Stoychev argues that the termination of the CVM must be accompanied by a high-level recognition of the failure of the mechanism to produce the results initially expected.

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