Earlier this month, the European Parliament voted by a clear majority in favour of Bulgaria's and Romania's future membership of the EU. If that vote had been taken just a few months earlier, however, it's likely that the outcome would have been very different, for Romania's future accession to the EU has continued to be a controversial matter.
Election promises change
The European Commission (EC), the union's day-to-day governing body, believes Romania has made too little progress in recent years in a number of areas, especially in reforms to the judicial system and in fighting corruption. Yet, despite this criticism, the process of EU membership for Romania is moving ahead, and this is largely due to the unexpected election victory, in December 2004, of Romania's current liberal President Traian Basescu. Mr Basescu, a former mayor of the capital Bucharest, promised the electorate one thing: to fight corruption and restore Romania's lost morality.
Corruption is a stubborn and widespread problem in Romania. It was one of the key reasons why this country and neighbouring Bulgaria were not among the countries that joined the EU in May 2004, although eight other former-communist states were in the group of 10 new EU members.
The Ceaucescu legacy
Onno Simons, who represents the EC in Bucharest, says one thing that sets Romania apart - in a negative sense - from other countries in the region is the legacy left by the totalitarian regime of the country's former communist dictator Nicolai Ceaucescu:
"The shortages which occurred inside this economy caused people to become used to the fact that the only way to get something done was by doing a deal under the table or paying extra."
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Catch the big fish
According to Transparency International, an international non-governmental organisation which combats corruption, the last five years have seen Romania become Europe's most corrupt nation. Codru Vrabie, who heads Transparency International's office in Romania, explains that the country's voters chose the current government precisely because everyone is so sick of the bribery and fraud:
"The people of Romania have had enough of the corruption in the country. As former European Commission Günter Verheugen put it: the Romanian anti-corruption authorities should catch more 'big fish' instead of 'small fish'."
The public prosecutor of the anti-corruption bureau is now under great pressure from the new government and the European Commission to go out and get those big fish. The fact that this hasn't happened in the past is, according to Mr Simons, an indication of the lack of independence of the judicial and executive authorities in Romania:
"These people had close ties with the former government. Therefore, they could all be called to order or blackmailed with incriminating material if people tried to be too independent."
Deep rooted
The same judiciary is now being forced to demonstrate its independence from the former government, but only time will tell if they succeed. One thing that is certain is that Romania won't be able to change direction totally just because there's a new government in power. Corruption has become deeply rooted in Romanian society. This is why Brussels has, for example, called on the Romanian government to pay officials higher salaries to make them less susceptible to bribes.
Despite the problems, President Basescu has clearly managed to gain the benefit of the doubt from Brussels. But is the EU perhaps falling victim to some wishful thinking? Onno Simons believes it isn't, and that things are really starting to move in the right direction in Romania:
"It appears that the new minister of justice and the president are taking all the necessary steps to reform the judiciary and deal with corruption."If Romania does not manage to live up to its promises after all, then Brussels still has a sanction at its disposal: it can postpone the country's EU membership by one year. Right now, however, that threat is unlikely to cause the Romanians any sleepless nights.