Justice and Home Affairs and Romania's Accession to The
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Justice and Home Affairs and Romania’s Accession to the European Union By Lara Scarpitta A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Centre for Russian and East European Studies School of Social Science The University of Birmingham October 2008 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract When compared to the other candidate states of Central and Eastern Europe, Romania emerged as a laggard of transition. Its integration into the European Union has been marked by much uncertainty and setbacks, as well as profound delays in fulfilling the EU's entry conditions. As a difficult case, the dynamics of Romania's EU accession provide insight into the potential and limits of the EU's leverage, revealing how domestic factors can be decisive in constraining external influence. Focusing on the reform trajectory in the fields of judiciary reforms, anti-corruption and external border policies between 1989 and 2007, this study assesses the interaction between EU politics and domestic politics and the role of domestic factors in slowing down internal reforms. By identifying the domestic conditions under which conditionality is likely to more, or less, successful, this study contributes to the Europeanization and enlargement literature. By assessing the preparations for accession in the field of Justice and Home Affairs, this research also fills a major lacuna in the existing specialised literature. Acknowledgments There are a number of people that have contributed to this dissertation and to all of them I extend my sincere thanks. I am deeply grateful to my supervisors, Tim Haughton and Simon Green, for their guidance, constant encouragements and expertise in the field. I wish to thank the Economic and Social Research Council and the Centre for Russian and East European Studies of the University of Birmingham for their generous funding that allowed me to complete this research. My special thanks to Carlo Presenti who made my stay in the European Commission one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. I am equally grateful to Franco Frattini and his staff for their support and professional guidance. My fieldwork in Romania could not have been completed without the support of Mihaela Calin, Alex Campanasu, Adrian Lungu, Andi Grosaru, Bogdan Stefan, and Mihai Tunic. They helped me locate and contact people, and introduced me to the beauty of Romania’s life. I thank all those people whom I have interviewed in Bucharest and Brussels and who shared with me their expertise and knowledge of Romania. I also wish to thank Tom Gallagher for the stimulating discussions and Karolina Kottova, Petra Presenti, Odeta Balbullushi and Gergana Noutcheva for their friendship and encouragement. Above all, I would like to express my gratitude to my husband, Graeme Coultrip, for his patience and never failing love. I dedicate this work to the memory of my mother, to whom I owe more than I was ever able to tell her. Table of Contents List of Tables x List of Figures xi List of Abbreviations xii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Thesis objectives and central research questions ................................................... 7 1.2 Outline of the thesis argument .............................................................................. 10 1.3 Contributions of the Thesis ................................................................................... 13 1.4 Case Selection ..................................................................................................... 16 1.5 Methodology and Structure of the Dissertation ..................................................... 20 Chapter 2 EU Conditionality and Domestic Reforms 25 2.1 The domestic impact of the EU: review of the literature ........................................ 26 2.2 Conditionality as a mechanism of Europeanization ............................................... 32 2.3 When is EU conditionality effective ....................................................................... 36 2.4 Conclusion............................................................................................................ 43 Chapter 3 EU-Romania relations 1989 – 2007 45 3.1 The post-1989 period (1989 -1995)....................................................................... 47 3.2 From Exclusion to Inclusion (1996-1999) .............................................................. 54 3.3 Negotiating accession (2000 – 2004).................................................................... 63 3.4 Membership on the horizon (2005 -2007) ............................................................. 74 3.5 Conclusion............................................................................................................ 80 Chapter 4 Reforming the Justice System 82 4.1. Background to the EU’s approach........................................................................ 85 4.1.1. EU accession onditionality in the area of Judiciary Reforms...................... 86 4.2 The Impact of EU Conditionality on Judiciary Reforms in Romania ...................... 89 4.2.1 EU Conditionality and Judiciary Reforms in Romania after 1989 ............... 90 4.2.2 EU Conditionality and Romania’s implementation record ........................ 104 4.3 How Domestic factors affected compliance......................................................... 106 4. 4. Conclusion........................................................................................................ 116 Chapter 5 Fighting Corruption 119 5.1 Background to the EU’s Approach ...................................................................... 121 5.1.1 EU accession conditionality in the area of Anti-Corruption....................... 124 5.2The Impact of EU Conditionality on Anti-Corruption policies in Romania.............. 127 5.2.1 EU Conditionality and Anti-Corruption policies after 1989........................ 128 5.2.2 EU Conditionality and Romania’s implementation record ........................ 138 5.3 How Domestic factors affected compliance ..................................................... 142 5.4 Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 150 Chapter 6 Securing the EU’s External Borders 153 6.1 Background to the EU’s policy ............................................................................ 155 6.1.1 EU conditionality in the field of external borders control .......................... 158 6.2The Impact of EU conditionality on External Border Policies in Romania ............. 164 6.2.1 EU Conditionality and border policies after 1989 ..................................... 166 6.2.2 The nature of the Schengen acquis and the challenges of compliance.... 175 6.3 How Domestic Factors affected compliance .................................................... 182 6.4 Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 188 Chapter 7 Conclusion 191 7.1 The findings of the case studies.......................................................................... 192 7.2 EU leverage after accession .............................................................................. 203 7.3 The EU and future enlargements: Lessons from the experience of Romania ..... 208 Appendix 218 Bibliography 223 List of Tables TABLE 3.1. Romania’s compliance with the White Paper Acquis (1997)..................... 57 TABLE 5.1. Transparency International Annual Perception Corruption Index (PCI) .. 140 TABLE 6.1. PHARE Funds Allocation for Border Management 1998 - 2006............. 169 TABLE 6.2. Migration Trend : Long-Term Visa Applications (Q1 2006 - Q1 2007) . 179 x List of Figures Boxes BOX 3.1. Extract from the European Parliament’s Motion (February 2004) ...................... 67 BOX 3.2. Romania: The Postponement Clauses ................................................................ 70 BOX 3.3. General Safeguards in the Treaty of Accession of Romania and Bulgaria .......... 72 BOX 3.4. Verification and Cooperation Mechanism – Romania ........................................ 76 BOX 4.1. The Romanian Court System ............................................................................. 91 BOX 4.2. Specific Commitments undertaken by Romania in the field of Judiciary Reforms........................................................................................................... 101 BOX 5.1. Ten principles for Improving the Fight against Corruption............................... 126 BOX 5.2. Postponement Clause: Commitments for Romania in the field of Anti- Corruption ....................................................................................................... 133 BOX 6.1. Schengen Acquis: Specific commitments undertaken by Romania ................... 174 Maps MAP 6.1. Romania’s National Borders............................................................................ 165 xi List of Abbreviations AFSJ Area of Freedom,