Romanian Democracy

By Author: Anthony W Bills
Total Articles: 158
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Romanian Democracy
Introduction
Romania, a former communist state started formal dealings with the EU countries in 1974. After many years of communist rule, Romania, like many other eastern and south eastern European countries received an invitation by the EU. This was a very attractive offer because the country’s economy was in bad shape and national institutions were in chaos. EU membership was a symbol of prosperity of both the consumer and the manufacturer and was also prestigious. It also offered a sense of security. Since the economy of Romania was incomparable with the economies of the other EU members, membership would attract inflow of cash. Romania argued that since it was to take part in decision making in the EU, then giving up a little sovereignty was worth the course. Some influential and prosperous Romanians, like Mr. Iliescu vehemently supported the EU integration of Romania. The only reason such people could have been so eager to see Romania join the EU is that they new that their factories and other property would be safer in a country whose governance is under the scrutiny of the EU (Papadimitriou ...
... and Phinnemore, 2008).
Membership and Democratization
In 1995, Romanian government officially submitted an application of membership to the EU. The EU promised consideration of membership only if some condition were met. This was the first time a European country had been given such conditions for entry to the union. Democratization was a prerequisite for Romania and the other countries aspiring to join the EU (Papadimitriou and Phinnemore, 2008).
Human rights
More than 6.6% of the population of Romania is Hungarian. This caused concern to the member states of the EU. Romania was on this basis given as a condition to improve ties with Hungary before integration. The Council of Europe’s standards of human rights were to be used in order to judge if Romania and any other country, had achieved the required standard of democratization and human rights record. In 1993, Romania was taken in as a member of the Council of Europe. This was a cause of joy to the country which felt honored to be a member of the elite group of countries. This joy was however short-lived because immediately after, Croatia and Russia were also integrated which made the whole thing lose meaning. In order to ascend to EU membership, Romania was required by the EU to democratize and to improve its human rights record. Another condition that Romania was given was that it had to improve its relationship with Hungary. This was important because population is Hungarian. Member countries felt that it was imperative to protect minorities in Eastern Europe, like the Hungarians in Romania. All partner countries were expected to adhere to the Council’s conventions on human rights conditions and protection of the rights of the minority (King, 2008).
In 1995, the Romanian authorities became concerned with about some of the ratifications it had made earlier. In fear of the oncoming council’s convention, they hurriedly wrote to the council in order to amend some of the clauses. By this time, Romania had realized that getting integration was not as easy as it had seemed at first. It had also come to their realization that there was a dear price to be paid for the EU membership (Grigore, 2001).
Child protection
After many years of communist rule, child welfare in Romania had a terrible record. The government seemed helpless about the situation. In 1997 the government tried another reform in the child protection issue. This was prompted by the negative reports that were coming for the EU headquarters concerning the child neglect in the country. At one point, the country was threatened with expulsion from EU negotiations unless the issue of children welfare was effectively and conclusively addressed (Papadimitriou, Dimitris and Phinnemore, 2008).
Rule of law
The EU consistently expressed its wish to see a more independent judicial system in Romania. The union asked for a complete reform regarding the judicial system. In 2000, the constitution was reviewed. This gave considerable independence to the judiciary. The judicial system which Romania sought to put in place was similar to the one in France and Belgium and a superior council of magistrates was created. Within 2004 and 2005, a new criminal code was instituted and freedom of expression guaranteed.
One of the huddles that seemed almost insurmountable was corruption. Like many other countries in the region, this vice had its roots very deep. Influential people in high places were thoroughly corrupt. On the other hand, the EU had been very tough on this particular criterion. The Romanian government needed laws to deal with the problem. In particular, what were needed were laws for accountability and transparency, institutions to deal with graft cases and parliament legislation to tackle issues of conflict of interest. As a result and necessity, with the authorities fearing to miss the EU mark, the a prosecutor’s office was set up in 2003 to deal with corruption cases. The EU was however not satisfied because even though the prosecutor had many solved cases to his credit, he had failed to solve any of the big cases. This caused another delay to the accession of Romania (Shafir, 2005).
EU conditions
The conditions that the EU gave Romania and the other countries which were in the pipeline of being integrated into the EU virtually covered all aspects of life were that Romania was to give evidence that there were enough resources and institutional framework enough to make the country functional, that it would also furnish the EU with evidence of capability of carrying out the necessary reforms. It is notable that although there is no explicit reference to politics and governance, everything sort of indirectly points to human rights and the rule of law, the cornerstones of democracy including movement of commodities and public purchasing, movement of people which implies the rights of people, movement of cash which deals with laundering, law governing companies which control all corporate operations and economic and fiscal union which controls the central bank
These issues touch basically all areas of governance. It is evident that any country that implements these conditions automatically becomes democratized. Whether Romania was in the process of democratization or not, the conditions given by the EU must have speeded the process by gigantic step (Linden, 2007).
Romania was promoted to a full member of the European Union EU on January 1, 2007 after a long struggle. On the same day, Bulgaria was also integrated.
Conclusion
The experience of Romania in its struggle to join the EU is a clear indicator of the real reasons why the EU invites eastern and south eastern countries and the former union of soviet republics o join the union. The real interest is actually political. There is no other easier way of controlling a country than by dictating to its political policies. Hope for economic liberation and security attracted many of the former soviet countries. Those who joined got the experience and the countries which are hoping to join in the future should expect to go through the same ordeal that Romania went through if not tougher.

Cited Works
Grigore, Pop-Eleches, (2001), Journal of Democracy: Romania's Politics of Dejection, Volume 12,No. 3, July, 2001.
King, Robert R. (2008). History of the Romanian Communist Party. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press.
Linden, Ronald Haly. (2007) Communist States and International Change: Romania and Yugoslavia in Comparative Perspective. Boston: Allen and Unwin.
Papadimitriou, Dimitris and Phinnemore (2008), Romania and the European Union: From Marginalization to Membership? Routledge, New York.
Shafir, Michael(2005), Romania: Politics, Economics and Society. Boulder, Colo.: L. Rienner.

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