Bulgaria and Romania, twin Cinderellas in the European Union: how they contributed in a peculiar way to the change in EU policy for the promotion of democracy and rule of law

This article provides a test for the relevance of the major conceptual framework used in Europeanization literature on EU political conditionality for promoting effective democracy and rule of law (RoL). It highlights a major enlargement policy problem which should challenge the basic assumption of this academic tradition. The main focus is on the Bulgarian-Romanian case which illuminates much broader processes in Central and Eastern European countries in recent years. They are a serious reason for reconsidering the premises, logic and mechanisms of the ‘Enlargement-led Europeanization’. After a brief socio-political argumentation of the need to discuss the Bulgarian and Romanian case jointly (as ‘the only laggards of the Fifth Enlargement’), the paper traces back a complex connection: post-accession conditionality’s failure – pre-accession political methodology – paradigm alternatives of enlargement research. Empirical arguments are provided for the general assessment that EU’s post-accession conditionality (in the form of a Cooperation and verification mechanism – CVM) is undergoing a deep crisis since it is unable to achieve its own goals within the span envisioned by its initial political design.