After breaking all diplomatic rules with regard to a sovereign and independent country, anticipating the results of the general elections in Romania and already mentioning Mircea Geoana as “prime minister” and Mr. Nastase – the clairvoyant commissioner Verheugen said that he was clearly convinced that the ending of the negotiations with Romania until the end of this month was not only necessary, but also possible.

This is at least weird, considering the latest critics that came from EU regarding Romania’s reforms.

Meanwhile, an Economist article, The next EU enlargement looms, mention that:

a change of government might be healthy. The ruling Social Democrats (PDSR) are post-communists whose older leaders learnt their trade in Ceausescu’s time. They have modernised their style and ideas in the past four years, but their party machine is fuelled by clientelism and corruption

There is still a long way to go. Romania has the lowest income per person in central Europe, the worst environmental standards, the biggest tax arrears, the most pervasive corruption, the highest infant mortality and the lowest education spending. Its judicial system is a mess (see article), its media freedom questionable, and its labour market so dysfunctional as to constitute ‘a human-asset paralysis’, in the words of a World Bank report.