Beyond Balkan exceptionalism. Assessing compliance with EU law in Bulgaria and Romania

The overwhelming part of EU scholarship has singled out Romania and Bulgaria as examples of failed integration. Studies dealing with these two countries’ EU accession have highlighted that EU membership was premature and found pre-accession expectations largely confirmed when looking at failures to implement anti-corruption policies, deficiencies in the use of rule of law or backsliding in democratic practices. This contribution takes issue with these pre-accession expectations in the literature and focuses on legal compliance with EU legislation as the most direct way to assess whether EU rules are followed or not. Based on transposition data and infringement proceedings between 2007 and 2017, the contribution shows that while the number of infringements from the two countries has increased over time, the record does not show extreme developments when compared to other groups of EU member states.