When Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU on 1 January 2007, they still had serious shortcomings in crucial areas, such as the rule of law, fighting corruption and organised crime, and reforming the judiciary.
Regardless, the two countries were let in on the condition they would be subjected to the so-called Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) - an unprecedented form of monitoring backed by regular European Commission reports on the countries' progress on reform.
The late...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.