Between Rhetoric and Action : Reflections on Romania's European Union Accession and Political Conditionality - The Views from Brussels and Bucharest

The role of political elites is an important theme in the study of EU enlargement; but how this relates to domestic politics is often neglected. This theme is applied to Romania, with a focus on the problems of implementing the EU's political conditions. Firstly, attention is given to the conditionality policy adopted by Brussels with respect to Romania; and then, secondly, attention turns to Bucharest. The analysis of Romanian responses is based on a distinction between political will and political capacity. While there are some positive elite characteristics relating to the will factor, although complicated by instrumental attitudes towards conditionality, various problems of political capacity help much to explain Romania's persistent difficulties for much of the accession period in meeting Brussels' demands