nam 22 uu 4500 10.17176/20221129-121544-0 DE-Verfassungsblog cr||||| 221129s2022||||xx#|||||o|||| ||| 0|eng|| 10.17176/20221129-121544-0 doi eng 342 23 Dehelean, Diana Author aut War, Schengen, and the Rule of Law - The European Union’s early Christmas present to Romania Dehelean, Diana Verfassungsblog 2022-11-29 Text txt rdacontent Computermedien c rdamedia Online-Ressource cr rdacarrier On 22 November 2022, the European Commission (EC) published its final report on Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) and proposed the mechanism be terminated. While this is an early Christmas present to the ruling elite of Romania, it certainly isn’t one for the rule of law – neither in Romania nor the EU. It’s been nearly 16 years since the CVM was established at the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU in January 2007. Setting and monitoring benchmarks, its aim is to support both countries in overcoming shortcomings relating to the rule of law, especially the independence of the judiciary and fight against corruption. While Bulgaria was considered to have successfully fulfilled all benchmarks by 2019 and the mechanism was lifted, the case is different for Romania. CC BY-SA 4.0 Cooperation an Verification Mechanism romania Rule of Law Ouředníčková, Sarah Author aut Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 https://verfassungsblog.de/war-schengen-and-the-rule-of-law/ raw object