Bulgaria and Romania’s EU Accession: Lessons Learned – Dr. Dimitar Bechev, August 2020
This publication is produces thanks to the cooperation between European Movement in Albania (EMA) and the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) as part of the project: “Deliberating Socio-Economic Impact of EU integration – Albanian case and regional experiences”. It is conducted within the IPA funds of EU and with the support of Central Finance and Contracting Unit (CFCU) together with the Ministry of Finance and Economy.
In order to understand the dynamics and conditionality when it comes to the relations with EU, it is of great relevance to analyse the pre-accession and post-accession process of two Member States whose membership is often criticized as hastened. The Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification (CVM) has been subject of interest for the two countries who entered EU without achieving all the standards required for a functional democratic state ruled by law. It was observed that EU conditionality after membership does not contain the appropriate value and strength and these countries even though now are Member States, still continue to face problems related to democracy, corruption and the rule of law.
Bulgaria and Romania’s EU Accession: Lessons Learned by Dr. Dimitar Bechev, August 2020