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EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - Of all the central and eastern European countries to have joined the EU, Romania appears to still have the strongest ties with its communist past.

If transition went smoothly in countries like Slovenia, now a proud eurozone member and next year's holder of the EU presidency, Romania is again dominated by old-guard politicians from the former communist party, doing their best to scrap or water down the reforms started in the past two years.

With a suspended president and all reformist ministers kicked out of office this month, the situation surpasses even the worst-case scenarios predicted just after Bucharest joined the EU on 1 January.

The new political configuration around liberal prime minister Calin Tariceanu is using and abusing every possible democratic tool for its undemocratic goals: delaying the European elections for fear of facing the voters, an impeachment procedure against president Traian Basescu based on no constitutional grounds and a cabinet reshuffle to get rid of performing ministers thought to be "too close to the President".

The majority of MPs voted last week to suspend president Basescu from his duties, despite the Constitutional Court's ruling that he had not overstepped his constitutional rights. But since the court's verdict was just an "advisory" one, the parliament could go ahead with the impeachment procedure.

The socialist old-guard politician Nicolae Vacaroiu, the speaker of the senate, has taken over the duties of interim president for one month.

A referendum on the impeachment is due on 20 May and is likely to produce a reconfirmation of Mr Basescu - who is still the most popular Romanian politician - as president.

But the socialist plan does not stop here, as they are also plotting a modification of the constitution in order to weaken the presidency's attributions, adding an amendment so that a suspended president can never be allowed to run again.

Reversible reforms
For the newly installed "Black Coalition" – the one Romanian voters never approved – the stakes are great. The four "Black Coalition" parties – Liberals, Socialists, the ethnic Hungarian UDMR party and the small Conservative Party of former communist secret police agent and media owner Dan Voiculescu - are trying to defend the very privileges and impunity they have been used to so far.

The European Commission seems to have predicted something like this when it constantly called for "continued reforms that are irreversible."

Four months after Romanian accession, it is clear that not even the post-accession monitoring mechanisms imposed by Brussels and the threat of safeguard clauses are real means of pressure for the Romanian politicians.

A proof: the new justice minister Tudor Chiuariu who tries to distance himself as much as possible from his reformist and EU-acclaimed predecessor Monica Macovei. When talking about his priorities, Mr Chiuariu bluntly said that "I care about the needs of the citizens, not about pleasing Brussels and getting nice phrases in the monitoring reports."

Of course, the young and very politically-motivated minister failed to explain in what way the two are in contradiction.

Without the bold reforms and anticorruption measures implemented by Ms Macovei, who was sacked this month, Romania probably wouldn't have made it into the EU on 1st January. But the new justice minister underlined he doesn't want to become a "Robin Hood" after what he called a "Joan d'Arc."

Romania's return to kleptocracy
The EU's cautious and often too diplomatic approach could prove wrong in this case and perpetuate a modus operandi that will ultimately backlash at Brussels itself.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso last week expressed his wish that the crisis be solved "by the Romanian institutions in full respect of the democratic and constitutional principles as soon as possible".

Not wanting to take sides, Mr Barroso reminded both the premier and the president of Romania's commitment to fight corruption and to reform the judiciary.

But promises from the acting interim president, the "Black Coalition" and the new justice minister resemble too much what the socialists were so proficient in doing when negotiating Romanian membership with the EU commission in 2000-2004: shallow promises, institutions that worked perfectly on paper and no real reform.

The rule of law and the end of the impunity era that seemed to take a hold in Romania the past three years proved to be a short lived effort championed by a handful of reformists, who now have been cast away.

Romania's return to kleptocracy will be devastating for its citizens and business environment.

But ultimately, Romania's backlash will prove that EU's "soft powers" are sometimes too soft. This is particularly so when facing old guard communists with decades of experience in cooking the books, corruption and promises that are never fulfilled.

Valentina Pop is European Affairs editor with the Romanian daily newspaper "Romania libera"

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