The Story of the Infamous PSD Leadership Meetings Transcripts: A Case Study in (Failing) Rule of Law in Romania
The Story of the Infamous PSD Leadership Meetings Transcripts: A Case Study in (Failing) Rule of Law in Romania

Summary/Abstract: The EU Commission has repeatedly signaled that during the Social Democratic Party (PSD) mandate of 2001-2004 Romania was falling short of meeting the Copenhagen criteria for EU admission. In particular, the government was blamed for being slow on the depoliticization of judiciary, ineffective in tackling corruption at the top, and not very keen on media independence. Bucharest has always been prompt in denying such accusations as groundless. Until November 2004, that is. One week before the first round of the national elections, hundreds of pages of transcripts from the PSD leadership's meetings in the past two years leaked to the public. A couple of newspapers still independent ran full pages with excerpts; one of them edited a book in three volumes with all the documents1; while the EU Delegation sent to Brussels an English language synthesis of the most interesting parts. The discussions held in these party meetings - some including statements with criminal implications for those who made them - came as a confirmation of the public's most pessimistic expectations.

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