Democracy After Accession: Lessons Learnt from EU's Cooperation and Verification Mechanism

Democracy is a broad and contested concept, but there is agreement among scholars and practitioners that the rule of law and democracy are interlinked and that judicial independence is fundamental to democracy. Bulgaria and Romania have been tackling ‘outstanding issues’ in the areas of judicial reform and fight against corruption under rigorous monitoring through the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) since 2007. The CVM set up an important precedent by extending pre-accession monitoring in areas with limited acquis to fully-fledged member states. The recent sets of reports illustrate that the reforms in both countries have follow distinct trajectories. Although there is an impressive body of literature on the impact of EU enlargement conditionality, research has largely neglected the impact of the unusual post-accession monitoring instrument. Few studies have discussed the weaknesses of the CVM and noted its lack of leverage. Furthermore, none of the studies generated high expectations of impact. The aim of the paper is to reflect on the differentiated impact of the CVM and outline the key lessons learnt from twelve years of post-accession conditionality. As the CVM has inspired and shaped the development of the EU’s internal and external policies in the areas of anti-corruption policies and judicial reform, understanding its success and failure will provide the basis for new policy solutions at national and EU level.