Two thorny questions

The European Commission is having to grapple with two rather thorny questions and has intervened on them during the course of this week: the first regards the process of reform of the judicial systems underway in Romania and Bulgaria, the last two States to have entered the EU in January 2007; the second relates to the crisis in the dairy sector, a crisis that has been on the front page of leading European dailies for months.Judicial reforms and combating crime. “A greater effort is needed to obtain convincing results at the level of judicial reform, the fight against corruption and, in Bulgaria’s case, the crackdown on organized crime”. With this summary conclusion, the European Commission has reminded Bucharest and Sofia of the need to continue the reforms begun some time ago to obtain the green light for membership of the European Union, but these reforms have not yet been completed and must be continued in some particular sectors of public order. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, himself has declared: “The process of reform must be supported by a national political consensus, with which all the political parties and all the institutions must associate themselves, and by more convincing results”. Romanian and Bulgarian citizens, adds the Portuguese citizen, “and those of Europe as a whole must have the certainty that no one is above the law. I hope that the two governments will act rapidly to implement the specific recommendations made by the Commission”.Concrete results needed. According to the protocol sent by Brussels to the two Balkan capitals, “over the last twelve months Romania has presented important proposals to modernize its penal code, civil law and judicial procedures”, but what’s still needed is “strong political support to permit an independent judiciary to pass sentence in a rapid and effective way on high level cases of corruption”. According to the Executive, “the positive balance sheet of the judicial actions undertaken in cases of corruption at a high level has been maintained and has been completed by measures aimed at beefing up the personnel of courts and public prosecutor’s offices” and at improving “the coherence of jurisprudence”. These attempts at reform, however, are judged “fragmentary”; “they are not yet solidly rooted” and, especially, “they have not produced concrete results for Romanian citizens”.Greater political support. As regards Bulgaria, the experts of the Commission emphasize that the country has begun to reform its public prosecutor’s offices, “with a consequent increase in numbers of people being charged, tried and sentenced”. This, says the Commission, is a signal of a convinced effort to combat serious crimes. At the same time, however, “what’s needed is more determined political support in the fight against corruption and organized criminality, which must clearly be one of the top priorities of the new government”. The Commission, moreover, does not seem satisfied by the progress so far achieved: “It has not yet had repercussions on the daily reality of Bulgarians, who fail to see any improvements”. In the eyes of the citizen justice in Bulgaria is slow and sometimes unfair, and a number of public ministries and judges allegedly suffer pressures and interferences.Milk: aid to producers. The Commission intervened on a very different question on 22 July, assuring that it would do everything in its power to support dairy farmers, who demonstrated both in Brussels (18 June) and Strasbourg (14 July), protesting against the collapse of prices in the sector and, in some cases, against the announced abolition of so-called milk quotas, which will come into force in 2015. Prices to the producer for milk have in fact dropped from 0.30-0.40 euro per litre in 2007 to the current 0.24 euro; but in some regions producers receive even less, around 20 cents per litre. Such figures are considered insufficient even to cover the costs of producing milk on dairy farms. The Executive will continue “to avail itself of such measures as financial intervention, aid for private stockpiles and export rebates”. It will also authorize the rapid deposit of direct payments to producers. It has also recently begun “a new series of programmes for the promotion of dairy products”. The Commission is also thinking of funding the voluntary abandonment of milk production and “extending the temporary crisis programme to State aid for producers in the sector”. “We must do all in our power to help milk producers to come to terms with the current ruinous collapse of prices”, recognises Mariann Fischer Boel, EU Commissioner for Agriculture. “We will continue to avail ourselves of the measures we have in our possession to stabilize the market but, as the European Council indicated, we will not go back on our decision to progressively abolish production quotas. If placed in discussion, such a decision would create uncertainty and would not contribute in any way to improve the situation”.