The European Commission (EC) yesterday published its most critical report to date on Romanian justice since the establishment of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM - a monitoring mechanism) over three years ago, Ziarul Financiar reported.

The report says Romania has broken its commitments with the EU to correct its shortcomings and, without resorting to threats of financial penalties, asks the Romanian authorities to take immediate action in the fight against corruption and monitor penalties applied in high-level corruption cases.

The Commission's previous reports, although critical of some sectors, used such wording as "insufficient" or "limited progress", but the current report says in reference to high officials' wealth control that Romania has not acted in line with the commitments taken upon accession.

President Traian Basescu yesterday said the report was objective, but that the phrase in it about Romania breaking its commitments was unacceptable and Romania could not agree to such an exaggeration.

Source: Ziarul Financiar