On different tracks: Bulgaria and Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism

Romania and Bulgaria both joined the EU in 2007 and became subject to an ad hoc tool, the ‘Cooperation and Verification Mechanism’ (CVM), which was created by the European Commission to evaluate the progress of the two countries. Today, however, there is a growing gap between the two states: while Commission officials have suggested the possibility of Romania graduating out of the mechanism soon, there has been very little progress recorded in Bulgaria. Eli Gateva argues that questions about how and when the CVM will end have overshadowed debates about its effectiveness, and that the recent worrying developments in Poland and Hungary show that a more comprehensive approach to the rule of law is needed.