Political Reforms in Romania and the Indirect Effect of EU Membership

Following the wave of public pressure that accompanied the 2014 presidential elections, the Romanian Parliament adopted, throughout 2015, a series of significant political reforms dealing with the legislation on political parties, the electoral process and system for national and local elections, financing of political parties and electoral campaigns. Also, in light of the high levels of dissatisfaction of Romanians in Western Europe who were unable to vote in the presidential elections due to the poor management of polling stations in Romanian diplomatic missions, the Parliament is now in the final stages of adopting a law introducing correspondence voting. The goal of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, I present the main political reforms implemented in Romania, by comparing them with corresponding legislation in other EU states. For instance, in 2015 Romania switched from the most restrictive provisions on party formation in the EU (25.000 members coming from half of the territorial units) to the most permissive ones (only 3 members needed). Also, Romanian reverted to a closed party list electoral system, the same system used until 2004, making it rather an exception at the EU level. Secondly, I explain several mechanisms pushing the Romanian Parliament to implement these political reforms, focusing on how membership in the EU played a role that is little accounted for. For instance, the large Romanian communities in Germany, Spain or Italy, resulting from massive labor migration after EU integration, overturned the result of the presidential elections between the two rounds, allowing the new president to put additional pressure on the Parliament. Party financing was changed in key aspects while the Parliament used constant referrals to the “Europeanization” of the law as a shortcut to acquire legitimacy for the reforms. However, the end results has little in common with the legislation in the respective countries.