Category Archives: Romania
Civil society proudly presents: The quality check of Romanian MEPs
The European Institute for Participative Democracy (Qvorum) published today a study on the activity of Romanian MEPs in a one year period (January 2008- February 2009) during their current mandate. The goal of the NGOs study is two-fold: on the one hand, to look into how the MEPs contributed, through their activity, to stimulating participative [...]
Also posted in Eastern Europe, European Union Tagged 2009, Civil Society, EU, European Parliament, European Parliament Elections, MEPs, NGO, Romania 5 Comments
Romanian politicians and the attraction of the European Parliament (salary)
On June 7, Romanians will go to the polls to vote for the 33 MEPs who will be representing them in Brussels for the next five years. It is the first time when Romanian MEPs are elected for a full mandate, after Romania’s accession in 2007. But the prospect of spending five years in Brussels, [...]
Also posted in Eastern Europe, European Union Tagged elections, Elena Basescu, European Parliament, MEPs, party politics 8 Comments
Hope.Act.Change. 50% more or less
“A leader is a dealer in hope”. I believe Napoleon said that. The spectacular Obama campaign and his likely imminent victory seem to prove him right. Sometimes I wonder if Romanian politicians are aware of that. Traian Basescu seemed to be aware of that in December 2004, when he defeated Adrian Nastase. People Hoped. People [...]
The Romanian face of justice
In the aftermath of the report issued by the European Commission on the Romanian justice system and fight against corruption, many comments and interpretations have emerged in the Romanian press . This was to be expected. One of the most prominent debates stirred by the report these days is about the re-confirmation of Daniel Morar [...]
Posted in Romania Tagged corruption, Daniel Morar, DNA, EU Enlargement, European Commission, European Union, justice, politics, Romania, Romanian Politics 1 Comment
Latest monitoring report on Romania- definitely not the last
Today the European Commission released the monitoring reports on Romania and Bulgaria, foreseen by the “cooperation and verification mechanism”. On the whole, not many surprises: the rough tone that was expected, telling off the two countries for the very small (if existing) progress regarding judicial reform and fight against corruption. This time, Bulgaria is more [...]
Corruption in Romania
A short reminder for the European Commission that will issue the progress report for Romania next week, dealing with the progress made in judicial reform and the fight against corruption … safeguard clauses, anyone? (check here for the so called Cooperation and Verification Mechanism) Click here to watch the video. (Hat tip to The Short [...]
Posted in Romania Tagged Bulgaria, corruption, EU, EU Enlargement, Europe, judicial reform, Romania, Romanian Politics 3 Comments
Blogs – A new image tool for Romanian Social Democrats
Blogs are one of the latest additions to the Romanian political landscape. From a totally unknown concept, they have turned overnight in fashionable tools, a “must have” for any politician who wants to be taken seriously. In fact, most of the politicians pay small fortunes to have a blog (although most of them use free [...]
Posted in Romania Tagged blogosphere, blogs, campaign, political blogging, political blogs, politics, psd, Romania, Romanian Politics, social media 3 Comments
Dysfunctional Romania
The Financial Times has a very accurate analysis of the state of politics in Romania: One word probably best describes the political process in Romania, little more than a year after the country joined the European Union. It is dysfunctional. A minority government is forced to scrape together a spendthrift budget with the erratic support [...]
EU rural development and 'semi-literate farmers'