Advanced master thesis | Political Science (Advanced Master)
open access
This thesis examines the impact of the European Union (EU) on the fight against high-level political corruption in Bulgaria and Romania from 2007 to 2013. Rather than being the result of internal...Show moreThis thesis examines the impact of the European Union (EU) on the fight against high-level political corruption in Bulgaria and Romania from 2007 to 2013. Rather than being the result of internal historical or cultural processes, I argue – in line with the theory of Europeanization – that the fight against corruption in these two countries is driven by the adaptational pressure exerted by the EU on the relevant national political actors (governments and parliaments). Using process-tracing, I show how this pressure wielded principally by the Commission via the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) and reinforced by some Member States through Schengen-membership conditionality leads to concrete legal and institutional reforms facilitating the control of high-level corruption. In particular, I find that when the Commission resorts to negative incentives (high adaptational pressure) domestic political will to adopt the desired changes increases correspondingly. Overall, I evaluate the CVM as an effective EU tool for tackling corruption in Bulgaria and Romania and I consequently recommend the implementation of a supranational monitoring system of this kind on a universal basis as to provide better guarantees that the fundamental values and principles of the EU are observed across all Member States at all times.Show less
