The EU executive remains committed to the objective of lifting the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) for Romania by the end of the current European Commission’s term, but if Bucharest has the ambition to do the same thing, there is a long way to go, and there are many steps to be taken, First Vice-President Frans Timmermans stated on Tuesday, following the meeting of the General Affairs Council (CAG).

“As far as Romania is concerned, we have a very good tool, a dialogue platform that allows us to address all these issues. This has to do with the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. It is an ample tool that allows us to deal with all these issues and which we always use to discuss this in a constructive manner with the Romanian government. I remain committed to having this discussion,” said Timmermans, Agerpres reads.

“As you know, we have expressed some fears in our latest report related to the fact that there has been no progress, but even regress in some areas, but both President Juncker and I are extremely committed to trying to accomplish what President Juncker said at the beginning of the term to try to conclude this CVM procedure by the end of this Commission’s term. But if Romania has the ambition to do the same, there is a long way to go, and there are many steps to take. The recommendations made by the Commission in the CVM are very clear and I am always at the disposal of the Romanian authorities to discuss their implementation.”

In a report published on November 13, 2018 the European Commission recommended Romania to suspend as soon as possible the enforcement of the Justice laws and subsequent emergency ordinances and to revise them by fully taking into account the CVM recommendations as well as those formulated by the Venice Commission and the Council of Europe Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO).