Articles for author: Maximilian Steinbeis

Kampf gegen Korruption in Rumänien: Das Verfassungsgericht verhindert eine Katastrophe

Die EU-Kommission hat gestern ihren 13. Fortschrittsbericht unter dem Kooperations- und Kontrollverfahren für Rumänien veröffentlicht. Sowohl Rumänien als auch Bulgarien werden seit 2007 von der EU-Kommission überwacht, die dabei hilft, rechtsstaatliche Reformen umzusetzen. Der Bericht betont die Sorgen der Kommission über die bedrohte Unabhängigkeit der Justiz und lobt den Verfassungsgerichtshof dafür, das Desaster einer „übereilten und intransparenten Änderung des Strafgesetzbuchs im Dezember 2013“ verhindert zu haben.The EU Commission published yesterday its 13th progress report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) for Romania. Both Romania and Bulgaria have been subjected to monitoring by the EU Commission since 2007, which assisted the countries in their rule of law reforms. The report stressed the EU Commission’s concerns about threats to the independence of justice and praised the Constitutional Court for preventing the disaster of the “rushed and untransparent amendment of the Criminal Code in December 2013.”

Romania In Hungary’s Footsteps: Different Victor, Same Strategy

By ANITTA M. HIPPER On January 1, 2012 with an ammended Constitution in place, a once praised EU accession candidate, Hungary, proved that rule of law and consolidated judicial institutions are not at all irreversible. A new shift of power brought to Budapest the necessary political power that allowed Viktor Orbán and the FIDESZ government to silence the Hungarian Constitutional Court, one of the strongest and most active Courts in Central and Eastern Europe. It does not come as surprise, when Romania, considered by EU officials a laggard in fulfilling EU’s conditionality, goes along the same path as Hungary, when ... continue reading