Transatlantic Politics

The oranges of November 2004 are becoming rotten. The "orange revolution" in Ukraine and the "orange elections" in Romania are ending in very similar ways: an anti-reformist majority in the Parliament is backing the Premier and trying to impeach the President, blocking early elections and any further efforts to shake up the judicial system, to fight corruption and to further democratize the country.  The Constitutional Court in both countries is very busy these weeks, trying to determine if the two Presidents are overstepping their constitutional rights. In Romania, the Parliament is going ahead with an impeachment procedure despite the Court's advisory ruling that there are no legal grounds for it. (UPDATE: The President has been suspended today from his duties. There are two options: either he steps down and in 3 months Romania will have early elections, or there will be a referendum on his dismissal. The opposition is already trying to modify the law in order to forbid him to run again. Over 5000 people gathered in the University Square in Bucharest stating their support and asking Basescu not to step down.)

In Ukraine, the President's decision to dissolve the Parliament and call for early elections is being contested in Court, although it is a presidential right.

Behind the "democratic" facade, there are very similar hidden agendas. In both countries, the "orange" shakeup started in 2004 has disturbed the oligarchs' privileges and impunity and has engaged too firmly both countries in a pro-NATO and pro-Washington foreign policy. Much to Russia's disdain. Kremlin's leverage on Ukraine is much more powerful - just a twist on the gas-faucet and the "orange" government crumbled. Yushchenko had to hire his former rival and pro-Kremlin politician Yanukovich as a Prime-Minister. Under the promise that Ukraine will keep its pro-EU, pro-NATO path.

Political promises, later forgotten. Same thing happened in Romania. Once EU accession was a closed deal, the reformists were kicked out of office in a "cabinet reshuffle". The current ultra-minority government has the broad backing of the Socialist opposition, whose interests evolve around protecting their "stars" on trial for corruption. The new Romanian Justice Minister understood the message. According to him, the main priority is to have a "dialog with the Parliament" and to do the reform "for and with the magistrates". "I'm not interested in obtaining nice lines in the EU Commission's reports, I care about the citizen's interests", the Justice Minister said, alluding to his predecessor, Monica Macovei, who was broadly acclaimed in the EU for her success in shaking up the judiciary.

What's EU's position on the recent slides in both countries? Neutrality, of course. Upsetting the Kremlin is the worse "faux pas" in its foreign policy. Not surprisingly, Mr. Yushchenko's didn't receive the desired support during his visit to Brussels today:

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says Brussels will not take sides in Ukraine's political crisis and urges both parties to seek compromise.Barroso was speaking after meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in Brussels. Barroso says he urged the Ukrainian president to find a compromise in his power struggle with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, and "to pursue efforts to find with all key parties a viable solution to the situation in full respect [for] the principles of democracy and the rule of law."

 Meanwhile, Ukraine's pro-Russian Prime-Minister was lobbying his cause in Strasbourg, in front of Europe's human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe. Ironically, the Council who is supposed to pressure governments to respect human rights in dealing with its own citizens was last year headed by…Russia.

  Speaking the same day at the Strasbourg headquarters of the Council of Europe, prime minister Yanukovych said the call for May elections could "have negative consequences for president Yushchenko, including impeachment."

A similar struggle on EU grounds took place after the Romanian Prime-Minister met with EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini. President Basescu promptly reacted, stating that the PM was trying to "discredit" him in front of the Brussels officials:

“The Prime Minister’s attempt to discredit the Romanian president while meeting the European Commissioner for Justice, Franco Frattini, in Zagreb, is a prove of political irresponsibility”, said Basescu, adding that Tariceanu had a major role to play in generating the current political tensions. 

UPDATE: The leaders of the conservative European Popular Party Joseph Daul and Wilfried Martens expressed their concern today regarding the situation in Romania and their support for president Basescu:

 ´´It is regrettable that a country like Romania, which just recently joined the European Union, has gone to this situation of institutional crisis. President Basescu has made an important contribution to Romania’s path in the last two years, thus facilitating its accession to the European Union. The slogan during preparation for accession was: ”Romania is the solution, not the problem of the EU”. At the moment, the procedure of  impeachment of a President in an EU country, against the decision of the Constitutional Court, creates rather then solves problems.
We hope that the political situation in Romania will not further degenerate. We expect that Romania should be an added value to the EU, namely with its active involvement in the European major projects, and in the Black Sea region. Further developments of the political crisis in Romania could endanger the attainment of these goals.´´

(see also Ukraine and Romania: Countering the orange revolution)

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