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of Moldova’s entire GDP, but this was just one example of many, albeit on
a large scale. Corruption is a problem across almost all of the former socialist space and Romania too was notoriously corrupt until the DNA’s aggressive pursuit of justice made it a dangerous activity to engage in.
Under Kovesi, the DNA investigated numerous serving and former ministers and other high-level officials, and was credited with making a real difference in the fight against corruption in Romania. In 2017 alone, the DNA sent 997 defendants to trial, including three ministers, a former parliament speaker and six MPs. The number of cases completed by DNA prosecutors increased by 16.5% year on year to more than 3,800 the same year. Kovesi herself became an icon of the struggle against official corruption.
However, this brought the DNA chief into conflict with the leaders of the then ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD), who sought to discredit her and remove her from the position. Despite mass
recommendations. Similarly, it pointed out in 2020 that “overall progress was limited”. A further setback came this autumn, when Justice Minister Stelion Ion of the reformist USR-PLUS was sacked, leaving reforms in limbo.
Bulgaria needs you
More recently, Bulgaria, like Romania, was racked by mass anti-government and anti-corruption protests, first in autumn 2019 over the appointment of Ivan Geshev as chief prosecutor, and later for several months in the summer and autumn of 2020.
At a protest in October 2019, bne IntelliNews’ correspondent in Sofia reported seeing one old man holding
a poster calling on Kovesi, then newly appointed as the European Union’s top prosecutor, to help the country.
“Prosecutor Kovesi, Bulgaria needs your immediate attention,” the poster read.
It hadn’t always been like that. Back at the start of former prime minister Boyko
suspected corruption schemes have been revealed, including that the former government led by Borissov signed contracts worth billions of levs without calling public tenders. Their efforts made the government the most popular in decades, and having built their reputations, two of the most high-profile ministers have now stepped down to run in the November general election.
Reforms reversed
Success stories in fighting corruption in the emerging Europe region are quite rare. In Southeast Europe almost every country has stagnated or dropped its score on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in recent years. Where there have been reforms, they often get reversed or undermined – just as Kovesi’s success at the head of the DNA in Romania ultimately led to her removal from the post.
One of the most notable examples is in the South Caucasus, where Georgia was once seen as the standout success story
of the former Soviet space after the Baltic states. When he came to power after the Rose Revolution, ex-Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s government embarked on far-reaching anti-corruption reforms, including the wholesale sacking of police officers and interior ministry employees, followed by the creation
of a smaller police force virtually from scratch. This eradicated most of the visible signs of small-scale corruption affecting the person on the street.
However, by the end of Saakashvili’s second term, international observers including Transparency International warned that he had allowed high-
level graft to re-emerge. Since then, according to the corruption watchdog, anti-corruption efforts in the country have stagnated. Under Georgian Dream, which ousted Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) from office, several high-ranking former officials from the Saakashvili era were convicted, but according to a recent report from the watchdog, aside from this “the anti- corruption efforts of Georgian Dream more or less ceased”. As bne IntelliNews has argued, “the track record for colour revolutions is actually very poor.”
“Under Kovesi, the DNA investigated numerous serving and former ministers and other high- level officials, and was credited with making a real difference in the fight against corruption in Romania"
protests and criticism from Romania’s international partners, they eventually succeeded.
The DNA is still investigating but no longer with the vigour it had under Kovesi. The annual Cooperation and Verification Mechanism(CVM) reports issued by the European Commission on Romania’s process in fighting corruption reflect this. The 2018 report, issued after Kovesi’s dismissal, concluded that “developments had reversed or called into question the irreversibility of progress” in Romania. The October 2019 report welcomed the “intention of the Romanian government to reset the approach”, but pointed out that Romania did not engage with all the
Borissov’s third term in power, it was the government that was inspired by the Romanian experience to launch a new anti-corruption effort. Announcing the launch of a single authority to tackle corruption in 2015, then deputy prime minister Meglena Kuneva said the new agency would be responsible for investigations into over 7,600 senior government officials and magistrates.
Instead it has been the caretaker government, appointed after the failure to form a new government following this year's April general election, that has been highly active in its efforts to bring members of previous administrations
to book for corruption. Numerous
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