Anti-Corruption in Bulgaria and Romania: Similar Pressures, Different Outcomes

Romania and Bulgaria have similar levels of political corruption at the highest echelons of power. Since 2007, both countries have been under sustained pressure by the EU to tackle the problem through corruption prosecutions. The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, introduced to monitor the countries’ progress towards that goal, specifically calls for strengthening the judiciary in order to effectively prosecute high-level politicians engaged in corrupt schemes. The outcomes could not be more divergent. Both countries’ public prosecution offices have indicted many high-level politicians on corruption charges. A whopping 21% of Bulgarian cabinet ministers and 11% of Romanian cabinet ministers have faced corruption charges in court. However, 81% of indicted Romanian ministers have been convicted and given effective prison sentences, whereas not a single Bulgarian minister has received a final conviction! I argue that Bulgaria has had a façade anti-corruption campaign, aimed at protecting corrupt political networks, while mimicking compliance with EU demands and public calls for cleaning up politics. Romania, on the other hand, has had an earnest anti-corruption campaign, aimed at undermining corrupt political networks. In both cases, the campaigns have been led by the country’s public prosecution, an institution that has received little attention by political scientists. The prosecution is the crucial actor we need to study to understand the dynamics of anti-corruption campaigns. The nature of the anti-corruption campaign depends heavily on whether the prosecution service is embroiled in corrupt networks or seeks to disrupt them. Reformists at the courts or in the ministry of justice cannot play the same role.