Romania and the European Union: How the Weak Vanquished the Strong

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Description

According to Tom Gallagher, Romania's predatory rulers, the heirs of the sinister communist dictator Ceausescu, have inflicted a humiliating defeat on the European Union. He argues convincingly that Brussels was tricked into offering full membership to this Balkan country in return for substantial reforms which its rulers then refused to carry out. This book unmasks the failure of the EU to match its visionary promises of transforming Romania with the shabby reality. Benefiting from access to internal reports and leading figures involved in a decade of negotiations, it shows how Eurocrats were outwitted by unscrupulous local politicians who turned the EU's multi-level decision-making processes into a laughing-stock. The EU's famous 'soft power' turned out to be a mirage, as it was unable to summon up the willpower to insist that this key Balkan state embraced its standards of behaviour in the political and economic realms. The book, now available in paperback, unravels policy failures in the areas of justice, administrative and agricultural reform and shows how Romania moved backwards politically during the years of negotiations. -- .

Reviews

'A chilling account of how Romania's wily ex-communist elite outwitted naive and impatient EU leaders.', Edward Lucas, Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for *The Economist*|'Timely, seminal and thought-provoking, this book, roots in an impressive understanding of Romanian political reality, is indeispensable reading for experts and laymen alike.'

- Dr. Lavinia Stand, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada|'By tackling head-on the issue of corruption in ROmania, Gallagher highlights the glaring gulf between word and deed in respect of the government's programme of reform and the EU's lack of robustness and consistency in holding Romania to account.'

- Dennis Deletant, University College, London

Author Bio

Tom Gallagher is Emeritus Professor of Politics at University of Bradford