Is Romania threatened with EU sanctions?

At the end of January, the EU Commission is to publish a new, interim progress report on justice reform in Romania. By June, the commission will decide whether protective clauses should be applied as a sanction. Luca Niculescu comments: "You don't have to be a keen observer to see that justice reform is failing. True, former Justice Minister Tudor Chiuariu managed to get Parliament to approve the founding of an Integrity Authority, but thus far it has not worked. In the fight against corruption, too, nothing has changed: The so-called 'big fish' are not fried. ... So how should the EU Commission react to this gloomy situation? The January report is expected to be quite negative. Brussels certainly doesn't want to apply its painful sanctions for the first time, but Romania seems to be making every effort to achieve this."

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