Cooperation and Verification Mechanism
Bulgaria and Romania have joined the European Union on January 1st 2007, but under the condition to continue the reforms in the area of justice and rule of law. The compromise was sealed by a special monitoring mechanism, called Control and Verification Mechanism (CVM). Under that mechanism the European Commission monitors the implementation of reforms in several benchmarks and makes recommendations. Each year, the Commission presents a general report in July and an interim document in the beginning of the year.
Entrance to the Berlaymont building | © EC - Audiovisual ServiceThe Fight for the Rule of Law Moves against Its Main Guardian: the Commission
On 15 September 2023, the Commission put a legal end to the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) by repealing Decisions 2006/928/EC (Romania) and 2006/929/EC (Bulgaria). This is a very regrettable development at a time when the rule of law erosion and the illiberalism creep have been on ...
| © European Union 2020, EC - Audiovisual ServiceCJEU Makes the Differences between the CVM and the General Rule of Law Framework More Visible
2023 could have been a very good year for the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), as the CJEU added two new valuable judgments to the growing line of CVM-cases, were it not for the decision of the Commission to repeal Decisions 2006/928/EC and 2006/929/EC (the CVM Decisions) and thus s ...
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen | © European Union 2019 - Source: EPThe End of the CVM: The Rule Of Law Mechanism Nobody Wants but Which the CJEU Made a Powerful Tool of
When Ursula von der Leyen said in her election speech in the European Parliament on 16th July 2019 that 'there can be no compromise when it comes to respecting the Rule of Law', it was a beam of hope that the EU had finally recognized that this was its most fundamental priority if it were t ...
Sergey Stanishev, Tsetska Tsacheva | © EPThe Bulgarian EU Presidency - Time To Look in the Mirror
The first presentation of priorities of the Bulgarian presidency of the EU Council in the European Parliament was also Bulgaria's first look in the European mirror. And the image there did not look good. This happened in the European Parliament's committee on civil liberties, justice and interna ...
Emmanuel Macron, Boyko Borissov | © Council of the EUFor the First Time at the Helm of EU Will Be a Country without Rule of Law
From the big-bang enlargement in 2004 onward, on the chair of the EU Council presidency sat various problematic states - with illiberal views (Hungary), countries in a de facto default (Cyprus, Greece), eurosceptics. However, it would be the first time that the presidency will be taken over by a ...
Frans Timmermans | © European CommissionFrans Timmermans Showed Poland the Door
The European Commission today discussed the EU's "nuclear option" regarding the most recent decisions of the Polish government with which the rule of law would be virtually completely destroyed. "Given the latest developments, we are coming very close to triggering article 7", said the Commiss ...
Frans Timmermans | © European CommissionCommission Monitoring Mechanism Will Remain for as Long as Necessary
The EU Council of Ministers poured some cold water on all attempts of Bulgarian politicians at gaining the removal of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), through which the European Commission monitors the progress in creating an independent judiciary and the fight against corr ...
| © euinsideHristo Ivanov: The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism Must Be Upgraded!
Some will say "Finally!", others - "They are late", and yet third ones will watch in disbelief, but ten years after its accession to the European Union Bulgaria finally has its first party, whose main task is fighting corruption. The party was founded at the beginning of the year, it is named "D ...
| © Transparency InternationalEC Transfers the Fight Against Corruption to the Victims Themselves
In a landmark moment like today when illiberalism is leading a fierce battle against the rule of law and democracy in emblematic states, the European Commission is making a serious retreat from one of the most important things, which ensure the rule of law and sound democracy - fighting corrupti ...
Jean-Claude Juncker | © European CommissionA Croatian Perspective on the Bulgaria and Romania CVM Reports
“In order for the EU to be effective in the disciplining of member states, it needs to be able to sanction. Cutting of EU funds because of problems with the rule of law in some of them might be a good idea”. This is the beginning of the commentary [in Croatian language] by ...
Boyko Borissov, Frans Timmermans | © GISBoyko Borissov Hopes European Commission Will Lift Its Monitoring Next Year
This article was supposed to have a different headline: “The European Commission removes its monitoring off Bulgaria next year”, but it was true for just a few minutes until one of the mysteries in Brussels on Thursday got revealed. Around lunchtime on December 15, it became known th ...
Frans Timmermans | © European ParliamentIs Poland Headed toward Triggering Article 7?
Last week the subject of rule of law in Poland once again got onto the agenda, after the First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, who is responsible for the rule of law, reported to Members of the European Parliament on what was (not) achieved in the dialogue ...
Frans Timmermans | © European CommissionCommission Struck a Snag With Poland
Poland is not moved the least bit by the European Commission’s attempts to explain to Warsaw that it has commitments to the rule of law, stemming from Article 2 of the Treaty of the EU. Ever since January, when the EC officially started a procedure against Poland due to concerns ...
| © European ParliamentCorruption Prevents Visa Waiver to Canada for Bulgarians and Romanians
The EU badly wants to be treated as a single entity, but it keeps not happening. From the outside the Union still looks like a collection of states with different development and, therefore, with a different approach toward them. Visa policies make no exception. On this subject the EU is about ...
Jean-Claude Juncker, Boyko Borissov | © Council of the EUWhat Does Bulgaria See in the CVM Mirror?
Bulgarian MEPs from three political groups (EPP, Socialists and Democrats, ALDE) requested the lifting of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), with which Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007. This happened during an outrageous debate in the Committee on Civ ...
Dacian Ciolos, Jean-Claude Juncker | © European CommissionJuncker, Romania, and the CVM Walk into a Bar...
One statement of EC president Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg, EPP) ruffled some feathers and further inflamed the already hot political atmosphere in Bulgaria. Following his meeting with Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Cioloș in Brussels Mr Juncker stated in front of journalists that Bulgaria an ...
Boyko Borissov, Frans Timmermans | © European CommissionProblems In Bulgaria Are Systemic, In Romania - Political
If you could summarise the contents of the European Commission reports under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), published January 27th, in two sentences they would sound something like: - Bulgaria: Something could start to happen - Romania: Something is happening ...
| © euinsideEuroscepticism Masked as Patriotism in the Poland Debate or 1:0 for Pro-Europeans
The debate on rule of law in Poland, which took place during the plenary meeting of the EP on January 19th in Strasbourg, did not achieve its goal of bringing more clarity on whether the “Law and Justice” government is following in Viktor Orbán’s footsteps, but did ...
Beata Szydlo | © Council of the EUEuropean Commission Starts a Battle with Poland with Unknown Ending
The European Commission took on the Poland challenge and announced it is going to investigate whether the reigning champion of Eastern Europe in the transition from totalitarian to democratic system is doing a U-turn. The EU has begun 2016 entering a Polish mode, which will put to the test the y ...
| © Dutch PresidencyPoland Is the First to Test the Weakness of the New Rule of Law Mechanism
After the convincing victory in the parliamentary elections in October 2015, the government of the Polish Law and Justice party started down the same path that Hungary was on under the leadership of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose party Fidesz had won a huge victory that secured consti ...
Hristo Ivanov, Dimitar Tsanchev | © Council of the EUReform of Judiciary in Bulgaria Is Impossible. Will History Forgive EU?
“Although today is a day, in which major steps towards rule of law are going to be made, this vote now has become a major symbolic step towards the doubt that more and more in Bulgaria we can talk of the rule of the Prosecutor General”. The words are of Bulgaria Justice Minister Hris ...
| © Ivo MIrchevBulgaria in a Bitter Fight for a Reform of the Judiciary. It Needs Help
In the midst of the heavy Greek drama the EU has hardly any time and energy for Bulgaria and Romania’s problems with rule of law, that in no way threaten the survival of the Eurozone or the EU. However, what is happening in the two countries at the moment is extremely important. The situat ...
Monica Macovei | © European ParliamentMonica Macovei: If You Cannot Do Reforms Resign
Fight against corruption in Romania has started because the specialised anti-corruption office has been created and because people who work there have become independent within themselves. Independence is ensured in law both in Romania and Bulgaria but one should feel and behave as an independen ...
| © screenshotIngeborg Graessle: It's Dramatic if Reports Are not Read in Bulgaria. EU Does Read Them
On April 14th the first in-depth hearing took place of how Bulgaria and Romania are dealing with the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) created to ensure their EU accession on 1 January 2007 unprepared. The hearing, as euinside wrote, took place in the budget control committee of the E ...
| © screenshotCVM Should Stay. Did you hear that, Mr Juncker?
Eight years after entering into force the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), created specifically for Bulgaria and Romania to allow them to join the EU without having completed the reforms of the judiciary demanded of them and without them having made the fight against corruption and ...
Angel Dzhambazki | © European ParliamentEP Pushes for Strong Rule of Law Mechanism, Council and Commission Are Against
After, in December, the member states threw a cold shower on the ambitions for a common European rule of law mechanism, the European Parliament demonstrated an amazing unity during the first debate on the issue on 11 February. In the mean time, the Liberal group in the European Parliament (ALDE) ...
Boyko Borisov, Jean-Claude Juncker | © European CommissionBulgaria Did not Keep Its Pre-Accession Promise
On the eight anniversary of the accession to the EU we can safely say that Bulgaria lied. It did not keep its promise to complete the reforms in the judiciary in exchange for its accession in the EU on 1 January 2007 unprepared. Bulgaria lied to the other member states that its problems wer ...
| © European ParliamentThey Don't Understand Us
Why are the Bulgarians unhappy? This question has been drawing the attention of international analysts quite often recently but, alas, their analyses rather reveal lack of understanding. The people in the developed world find it hard to understand us because they got acquainted with us after the ...
Meglena Kuneva | © Council of the EUMeglena Kuneva: There Will Be No Dramatic Change of Facts in Commission's CVM Report
The Bulgarian government recognises the need of a judicial reform and is actively working on this issue but if the Supreme Judicial Council and the parliament do not recognise their own responsibility the picture will not be complete. The judicial reform should stop being a battle field because ...
Meglena Kuneva, Vesna Pusic | © Council of the EUThe Rule of Law Mechanism Is Dead. Long Live the Rule of Law
There is still resistance for the European Commission proposal for the establishment of a common European mechanism to protect the rule of law. This is what Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva told me on Tuesday morning. She is responsible in the new government of Bulgaria for the pr ...
Victor Ponta | © Council of the EURomania Is Changing and Is Steadily Decoupling from Bulgaria
The status quo in Romania has lost. It was defeated by the determined Romanian citizens who stated firmly that they want a new Romania. The presidential elections in the country, which ended on Sunday (November 16), will reaffirm and enhance further the already ongoing process of change of& ...
| © ALDEFor the Sake of European Values EU Must Use the Nuclear Option on Hungary
There is no doubt that one of the most interesting hearings in the European Parliament on Juncker's new Commission will be of Hungary's candidate Tibor Navracsics out of spite of his portfolio. The reason is that he comes from Hungary, directly from Viktor Orban's government who is now leading a ...
| © European CommissionWhat Comes First - Good Judiciary or Prosperity? This Is the Question in Bulgaria
Is the availability of rule of law, effective and efficient judiciary, convincing fight against corruption a pre-condition for prosperity? That it is is a prevailing perception in the developed world shared also by the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Develo ...
Plamen Oresharski, Jose Manuel Barroso | © European CommissionMany Strategies and Zero Reforms in Bulgaria
Judging by the previous national specific recommendations of the European Commission, reforms in Bulgaria are completely paralysed. And judging by the national reforms programme, which is updated by the government every year on the basis of these specific recommendations, the paralysis will cont ...
Viviane Reding, Jose Manuel Barroso, Cecilia Malmstrom | © European CommissionThe Path toward Article 7 of EU Treaty Is Now Clear
In the past years, in Bulgaria, I have noticed that the phrase "rule of law" is completely incomprehensible and therefore it is empty of content. For most people this is some kind of a western fiction which sounds as non-understandable as trade with derivatives. The result is not surprising bear ...
Viktor Ponta, Jose Manuel Barroso | © European CommissionParliament Impedes Reforms in Romania
Reading the European Commission's reports on the progress of reforms of the judiciaries, the fight against corruption and organised crime in Bulgaria and Romania can impress with the visibly more significant progress by Bucharest. Although the picture in the country is far from rosy, there are s ...
Jose Manuel Barroso, Boyko Borissov | © European CommissionCommission: There Is No Political Consensus for Reforms in Bulgaria
The report from July 2012 was meant to be the summary of the entire period of functioning of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) which enabled Bulgaria to become a member of the EU on January 1st 2007. But it so happened that the most summarising report is that of January 22 2014 be ...
Viviane Reding | © European CommissionThe Rule of Law Mechanism Will Be Ready in Spring
To what extent is the EU capable of protecting its citizens and to what extent are they, in fact, citizens of the EU instead of the member states? Which issues the EU can rule upon and which not, should there be more or less EU? Those were the questions that roamed in my head while I partic ...
| © European CommissionThe Rule of Law Mechanism Is Doomed To Impotence
"But the most dramatic examples are in Eastern Europe. In Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria particularly, extreme right-wing militias have been terrorising Roma minorities and the homosexual community, faced only with general indifference from their respective governments". This is part of the analy ...
Ivailo Kalfin | © European ParliamentThe CVM Could Be a Base for a Common European Rule of Law Mechanism
On November 21 and 22, in Brussels, a special conference will take place about justice, which will be another episode of the public discussion of five papers of the European Commission related to the common European justice space. Under number four is the paper about the creation of a common Eur ...
Monica Luisa Macovei | © European ParliamentMonica Macovei: The Article 7 Procedure Should Be Simplified for Easier Application
One of the sanctions the rule of law mechanism, currently being developed by the European Commission, should impose is triggering Article 7 of the Treaty of the European Union. This article envisages suspension of voting rights of a member state in the Council. The opinion belongs to Monica ...
| © Ivo MirchevReformist Block: Between Now and Then
The early elections on May 12th, aside from enthroning the oligarchy, they also marked the death of the symbolic in the post-communist Bulgarian history democratic right-wing. Through the years, systemic efforts were invested, supported by individual and party egoisms, the parties that in the pa ...
Elections 2013 | © Transparency InternationalA Shop-Made Democracy
Is a shop-made democracy democracy? When 18.68% of the vote is controlled, 3.1% bought, when there is 19.37% illegal campaigning and advertising or when there are 58.9% organisational violations, according to Transparency International data about the early elections in Bulgaria on May 12th 2013? ...
Viviane Reding | © EUWhat Should We Ask from Viviane Reding?
On Monday and Tuesday, in Bulgaria arrives a key figure from the European Commission - Vice President Viviane Reding who is responsible for the fundamental rights, justice and citizenship. The visit is a unique opportunity to raise vital for Bulgaria and the EU issues, but it also hides a seriou ...
Plamen Oresharski, Jose Manuel Barroso | © EUThe Culture of Resignation
In 2010, as part of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), in Romania has been established the National Integrity Agency with the nicely sounding in Romanian name ANI. The agency is the leading anti-corruption section in Romania investigating the incomes of high level officials. ...
| © various protestersThe Transition Is Just Beginning
When the EU created a precedent by adopting an unprepared member state, no one in the other EU capitals nor in the European institutions had any idea where exactly the problem was. It was assumed that Bulgaria was almost entirely done with the transition from totalitarian rule in politics ...
Judicial independence | © European Commission4 Countries Want a Political Troika Where There Are Problems with Rule of Law
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia. Where else? In Hungary, the government of Prime Minister Victor Orban took a course of an overhaul of the Constitution, which raised a great lot of questions about whether Hungary is not scorning the fundamental European values. In Romania, the inter-institu ...
| © European ParliamentThere Won't Be Transition 2.0. Bulgaria Needs a Political Troika
After in 1989, due to accidental concurrence of circumstances, it got its freedom and therefore the right to democracy Bulgaria spent the last 23 years wandering and wondering what to do with them. These days is the second time the Bulgarians missed a golden chance to demand democracy and freed ...
| © EUCommission to Romania: Step Down When There Are Corruption and Integrity Charges
The European Commission has included the issue of independence of media inRomania in the extraordinary report on the country's progress under the Control and Verification Mechanism (CVM). This is a precedent which is essential for the dialogue the Commission is holding withRomania, but for Bulg ...
| © EUProblems of Media or Problems with Media Do we Have?
This was the question that was tormenting me while I was watching the recording [mainly in Bulgarian language] (thanks to the Politikat) of the meeting of Bulgarian publishers and independent journalists with Commissioner Neelie Kroes. This is a very important question the answer to which is yes ...
| © euinsideThe Problems of Bulgarian Media Are Already a European Problem
Bulgaria has a problem with transparency of media ownership and financing. The society does not know who (really) owns the media, or how are they financed even when it comes to public funds - either Bulgarian or European. This opacity is ideal environment for unhealthy dependencies between media ...
| © Presidency RomaniaIs the Political Crisis in Romania Abating?
With a drama ended the episode with the impeachment of Romania's President Traian Basescu, which is part of a bitter confrontation between him and Prime Minister Viktor Ponta. Late in the afternoon of August 27th, Romania's Parliament gathered to hear the ruling of the Constitutional Court from ...
| © European UnionThe CVM Report of Brussels – a Stick without a Carrot
This year the European Commission`s report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) was supposed to be a very important one, even crucial, because it had to summarise what Bulgaria had achieved for the five years under Brussels's monitoring in the field of justice and home affairs. ...
| © European Commission - Audiovisual ServicesIs Romania Making a U-Turn?
Reforms by themselves are not difficult. What is difficult in the Eastern part of the EU is to come to the realisation that they are necessary. This is the conclusion I draw from the report of all reports - the summary of the five years of functioning of the Control and Verification Mechanism (C ...
| © Ralitsa Kovacheva | www.euinside.euBulgaria Remains under EC`s monitoring as Long as it Takes
Reforms in Bulgaria have no direction, they are not perceived as an inherent necessity and in order to be carried out at all external pressure is needed. Until this is the case, Bulgaria will remain under monitoring. As long as it takes. This is the answer of the European Commission to the quest ...
| © European UnionNerves Do not Withstand Awaiting the CVM Report of the European Commission
Judging by the situation, in which the next Commission's report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) is expected, it is likely to be more than critical. Moreover, it is not just any report but a summary of the five years of functioning of the mechanism, aimed to help Bulgaria ( ...
| © EUDo Your Share so That …Brussels May Help You*
The interaction between Bulgaria and the European Union related to the country's problems with the judiciary features remarkable stability. For the last 15 years Sofia's work in the field was assessed exactly 20 times and the European Commission had not been given even one chance to amend its in ...
| © euinsideIn 2012 the European Commission will prepare a mega report on Bulgaria and Romania
"Changing the legal and judicial system to further align it with other Member States is a national task" and a fundamental reform of the judiciary should be seen as a national priority. This is one of the most important messages in the fifth monitoring report of the European Commission under the ...
| © euinsideBacillus Bulgaricus or the deficit of rule of law
Every year in July, for five years now, the virus called CVM spreads throughout Bulgaria. Usually at the beginning of July, both the authorities and the media remember that it's time the annual report of the European Commission, under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), to be publi ...
| © euinsideThe CVM assesses Bulgaria and is not a reason for interinstitutional competition
In contrast to previous occasions, the latest interim report of the European Commission under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) did not give rise to many governmental comments. Therefore euinside talked to Mr Rossen Kozhuharov, Director of the CVM Directorate in the Ministry of Ju ...
| © euinsideVladimir Shopov: The interim CVM report shows the "Honeymoon" of the government is over
On the occasion of the publication of the interim report on the progress of Bulgaria under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), euinside asked Vladimir Shopov, a political analyst, to comment on its findings. As you know, last year euinside and Mr Shopov's blogeurope organised a dis ...
| © euinsideThe EC Interim CVM Report: The "reform momentum" only is not enough
"The reform momentum" is now simply and clearly a "commitment" - this change in style shows the main message of the interim report of the European Commission on Bulgaria's progress under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). Although the report is "technical", i.e. there are no poli ...
| © euinsideBulgaria: SJC vs. CVM
European Commission spokesman Mark Gray likes to joke with Bulgarian journalists that whenever a CVM report of the Commission is coming, "Bulgarian media are just obsessed by two questions - when the report will be published and whether it is good or bad (and are we better than Romania)". In fac ...
| © European CouncilThe EU General Affairs Council: intensify your reform efforts in the judiciary
Bulgaria and Romania should urgently intensify their efforts for reforms, the General Affairs Council of the EU recommended in its conclusions after its session on September 13. The discussion on the European Commission's annual report on the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) in the a ...
| © The Union of Judges in BulgariaThe Court: there is no crime without evidence
The decision of Sofia Court of Appeal to release four, out of five, arrested in the so-called operation "The Killers", has opened a new front in the war between the executive power and the judiciary. Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov called the court's decision a "shame" and Prime Minister Boy ...
| © Eropean Commisson-Audiovisual ServiceThe Court vs. the Interior Ministry: operation "The Fools" against society
The latest report of the European Commission on Bulgaria's progress in the area of justice and home affairs has opened a new page of the prolonged trench warfare between the Ministry of the Interior and the judiciary. It was started again by the Executive with clearly offensive comments by Prime ...
| © Risk MonitorEuropean Commission recommends training and specialisation, not a specialised court
Nelly Koutskova is a judge at the Sofia Court of Appeals and a spokeswoman of the Union of Judges in Bulgaria. Ms Koutskova has a nearly 30-year career as a judge, she was Deputy Minister of Justice (1992-1993), member of the Supreme Justice Council (1999-2003), co-founder of the Legal Initiativ ...
| © Ralitsa Kovacheva | www.euinside.euA state under monitoring mechanism: what 'ticks' in the CVM report on Bulgaria
While we were reading the annual report of the European Commission on Bulgaria's progress under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), we were constantly trying to read what had not been written in it. Which is often the most interesting part, after the words of the Commission's spoke ...The everlasting CVM reports are the safeguard clause
Here is the commentary on the European Commission's Report, made by the political scientist Vladimir Shopov for euinside. As you know, in May euinside and Mr Shopov's blogeurope organised a discussion on the benefits and the future of the CVM. Many of the views expressed by the participants then ...
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