In September 2022, EFOR analysed the draft justice laws as adopted by the Romanian Government at the end of August and identified the most problematic provisions. EFOR concluded then that aside from not solving the problems generated by the 2017-2018 justice reforms, the draft laws return the justice system to pre-accession standards. On the 17th ···
The Romanian government adopted the draft justice laws on the 24th of August 2022 and is in a hurry to adopt them in Parliament in less than a month, in a joint committee and possibly under an emergency procedure. The government thus hopes to lift the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) this autumn. Not only ···
The overall aim of the project is to increase citizen participation in electoral processes in Europe. The project aims to empower European citizens to improve democratic electoral processes on local, national and European level and to protect the integrity of election processes in Europe as a fundamental human right of European citizens. The project initiates a ···
Even though election observation was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains an essential part for the credibility and integrity of the electoral process. In policy brief 89, Expert Forum explores varied experiences from several countries and proposes a list of good practice for the domestic election observation organizations. The purpose of this brief is to ···
In recent years, Central and Eastern Europe has seen various initiatives aimed at shrinking the space for NGOs and civic action in general. What is concerning is that some of these governments have sometimes claimed that these initiatives are merely seeking to implement EU requirements. However, little is done to raise awareness and capacity of ···
What is PNDL in Romania was the program “Good Roads for Moldova” for the government in Chişinău: discretionary purse in anticipation of the general elections of February 2019. In fact, the micro-targeting was even more sophisticated and perverse than parties are able to do in Romania, but the problem of systemic clientelism – discretionary use ···
The 2018 report on Romania was written by Laura Ștefan, anticorruption expert, former director in the Romanian Ministry of Justice, and international expert on rule of law; and Sorin Ioniță, expert in public administration reform and development and an associate lecturer at Maastricht School of Management (MSM) and Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj); and Septimius Pârvu, expert in ···
Around the world, the need to protect and support whistleblowers has never been greater. Even as their disclosures are leading to more corrective actions within governments and corporations, whistleblowers continue to suffer from retaliation, threats, fines and criminal prosecution. In Southeast Europe, a new initiative has been launched to fight for the rights of employees ···
Expert Forum, in partnership with the Rule of Law South East Europe Program of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the British Council opened a new call for School for Democracy which will take place between 31st August and 4th September 2015, in Sinaia. The School for Democracy addresses a number of 18 gymnasium and ···
Although the accession to the European Union has been a powerful ally for the internal fight against corruption and weak rule of law, it is now clear that the external pressure for change is not enough and there is a need for more active citizens, implicated in the public decision. The democratic derailments are not ···