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| EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROBLEMS (11.10.2007) |
| (2007-10-11) |
| Last updated: 2007-10-12 14:59 EET |
Its attention seized by petty domestic political games and profitable private businesses, the Administration in Bucharest seems to have forgotten the obligations it assumed upon EU entry and has piled up scores of pending dossiers. On Wednesday, the European Commission was obliged to demand the minority government, made up of the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, to amend deficiencies in the agriculture payment system.
Based on controls run by Community experts, the report presented by the European Agriculture Commissioner draws attention to serious delays. If it fails to address them, Romania risks seeing the European funds allocated in this already sensitive field to be cut by 25%. Many of the people involved in this field practise subsistence agriculture, productivity is modest and was dramatically affected by last summer’s drought. To top it all off, Agriculture Minister Decebal Traian Remes is the protagonist in a tragic-comical legal scandal over bribe-taking, involving money, sausages and plum brandy. This explains the warning given by the European Anti-Fraud Commissioner, that Romania may be sanctioned for its shortfalls in the fight against corruption.
The Cabinet failed to make a good impression in terms of recent privatisations, and is suspected of having granted illegal state aids. The European Commission has launched a new probe into the sale of the Craiova Car Plant in southern Romania to Ford, which has been largely referred to as a resounding success. Last month, Brussels started a similar investigation into factories in Brasov (central Romania) and Roman (in the east of the country). And, as if that weren’t enough, the European Commissioner for Energy has put a damper on the Romanian government’s intention to set up a large State Energy Company, which would incorporate operators that have not yet been privatised.
Brussels believes that the project could create a monster and would affect free competition on the market. Despite having his back against the wall, Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu gave a harsh retort which would have been unconceivable before January 1st 2007, when Romania joined the EU. Quote: “They should get first-hand information. I think their comments are entirely ungrounded and I will not take any lessons. Let me make this clear, I will not take lessons from anyone, and that includes Brussels”, Tariceanu blasted.
His fierce response won him a headline in daily Evenimentul Zilei, which read: ‘Europe needs a bigger, more threatening stick”. The newspaper regrets the fact that ‘Brussels does not have more punishing instruments to castigate this government’s incapacity.’
(Bogdan Matei)
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