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This article discusses the countries of Bulgaria and Romania as they prepare to enter the European Union (EU). Say what you like about the current Romanian government, the alternative would have been worse. When the ex-communist Social Democrats won the general election in November 2000, the runner-up was the Greater Romania Party, probably the furthest-right party to sit in any European parliament in the past 50 years. Its leader, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, has compared himself admiringly to Marshal Antonescu, the pro-Nazi wartime leader of Romania, and to the country's more recent dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. Ion Iliescu, the veteran ex-communist who has held the president's job for most of the past decade, will be barred by the constitution from running again. The ruling party, the National Movement Simeon II, was thrown together in haste before the general election of July 2001 as a vehicle for ex-King Simeon Saxe-Coburg, who returned to Bulgaria after his expulsion by the communists 45 years earlier at the age of nine. Freedom House, an American think-tank, gives Bulgaria and Romania mediocre ratings for their performance in areas such as the holding of free and fair elections, the rule of law, the independence of the press, the quality of law-making and the honesty of the public services.

The article focuses on the problem of corruption in Romania in 2015. Topics include the arrest of former Tourism Minister Elena Udrea by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) for money laundering, the work of DNA chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi, and the leadership of Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

The article focuses on Daniel Mohar, head of Romania's anti-corruption agency. Mohar will leave his job on August 12, 2008. He is unpopular, but viewed as an effective prosecutor of political corruption. Most of Mohar's cases were blocked by Romania's Parliament. Political corruption is almost universal in Romania, and is accepted as a longstanding social tradition.