The lifting of the CVM: a breath of fresh air for the Government and President Iohannis / What the European Commission’s decision means for Romania

The European Commission’s decision to terminate the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for Romania, two years after a similar decision was taken for Bulgaria, is undoubtedly a political decision designed to help Romania in its bid to join the Schengen area this year. It is a breath of fresh air for President Klaus Iohannis and an unexpected validation for the Ciucă Government and the PNL-PSD-UDMR coalition, which is already parading the Brussels decision.

Like the Schengen evaluation report, the latest CVM report is also politically cosmeticized by the European Commission. All the real problems in justice, some of them big and unresolved, have been overlooked, passed over to future evaluations under other mechanisms set up in the meantime by Brussels (Rule of Law Mechanism, PNRR) or treated with indulgence. The Commission only notes that the government has committed itself to respect the recommendations of the Venice Commission, which raises serious objections to the justice reforms. Only this time the Commission did not mention them in its latest CVM report.

President Klaus Iohannis, the Ciucă government and PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu overplayed the European Commission’s decision, which was essentially presented as a historic moment and a confirmation from Brussels that the direction of justice reforms is correct. In other words, they have arrogated to themselves much greater merits than they actually have and the moment is far from historic, but only predictable and almost inevitable, in a complicated geopolitical moment.

As cynical as it sounds, Romania has made the most of its geostrategic position in the context of the war in Ukraine, playing the card of a reliable ally to the EU and NATO, a country on which European and American allies can rely and which has dealt with the refugee problem in an exemplary manner and has positioned itself correctly on all issues relating to the sanctioning of Russia, the aid to Kiev and the energy crisis.

First of all, Romania’s monitoring of justice has not disappeared at all. It will continue within the framework of the rule of law mechanism, which links European funds to respect for European values such as the independence of the judiciary, freedom of the press, etc. Of course, this mechanism is considered by some to be more watered down because it covers all states and is not as detailed and technical as the old CVM reports, but much more general.

However, the new mechanism is much more effective because it has much stronger corrective tools: cutting off EU funds in case of serious deviations from the rule of law. The old mechanism contained simple recommendations, which Romania could comply with or not without risking anything but a political rebuke from Brussels. The report worked as a lever for external pressure in the early years, but has come to be completely ignored in recent years as politicians have realized it is like a gun with blanks.

Second, the report is not a blank cheque. Although the Commission refrained in the last report from assessing the new justice laws and saying clearly whether they are good or bad, the report says that they will be assessed under the NPRP, which is a new development. The reform of the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes will also be monitored under the PNRR, as well as under the new rule of law mechanism. This means that any major slippage from justice reforms can always result in EU funds being cut.

Romania has therefore not escaped the watchful eye of Brussels, only a mechanism that had become obsolete, ineffective in the absence of corrective levers and almost irrelevant as a means of pressure in recent years. Its lifting, two years after Bulgaria got rid of the mechanism with a much less reformed judiciary, had become inevitable. In addition to Bulgaria escaping the mechanism, we then have the cases of Poland and Hungary, both with infinitely more serious slippages, but without a CVM hanging over their heads.

Therefore, maintaining the CVM could no longer be politically justified in Brussels, all the more so since the same European Commission recently recommended that the Council take measures for Romania’s unhindered admission to the Schengen area. You can’t on the one hand say that Romania’s justice system has major problems, and on the other hand claim that the country meets all the conditions for entry into the Schengen area even though technically these are two different issues.

Do Romanian politicians also have a merit? Obviously, it cannot be said that the decision is purely political, based solely on a favorable international context, and that the government, President Iohannis or the coalition did not lift a finger to get Romania out of the CVM. They all understand that strong actions against the judiciary, the dismantling of the Penal Codes in Parliament or violent attacks on DNA or other key institutions in the judiciary are the shortest road to political suicide. The methods of the Dragnea regime have been completely abandoned. Therefore, the half-baked justice law repairs, the mimicry of a reformist agenda and the duplicitous rhetoric have convinced Brussels that Romania can today receive a political prize such as the lifting of the CVM and eventual admission to Schengen.

But the reality is far from the triumphalist tone of power in Bucharest. The fight against corruption has significantly weakened, the judicial system is threatened with paralysis due to the wave of retirements from the judiciary and prosecutors and judges are still being intimidated by political power through mechanisms inherited or preserved from the PSD government (Judicial Inspection, Special Section). But the closure of the CVM remains, whatever the case, the small moment of glory for President Iohannis and his government. He can finally put something to the right of his two empty terms at the Cotroceni: a trivial achievement, a politically negotiated decision, which he will tout until the end of his term and sell as a historic moment, undeniable proof that, under his presidency, justice in Romania has become truly European.

Klaus Iohannis will remain perhaps the weakest president in Romania’s history, but the luckiest by far.