Roemeense minister Mocovei, verantwoordelijk voor EU-hervormingen, ontslagen (en)

The architect of key reforms in recently-joined EU member state Romania, justice minister Monica Macovei, has been sacked as part of a government reshuffle highlighting the political instability in the country.

Romanian prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu on Monday (2 April) announced the formation of a new government, ending a coalition of the Liberals (PNL) and the Democratic Party (PD) which had seen months of political infighting centred around a feud between Mr Tariceanu and Romanian president Traian Basescu.

Absent from the new cabinet line-up is Monica Macovei, who held the justice portfolio until Monday and who is highly regarded in Brussels for having shaken up the largely unreformed Romanian judiciary and for putting an end to an era of impunity for the country's political elite.

The move is likely to raise concern among European Commission officials who say Ms Macovei played a key role in judicial and anti-corruption reforms which secured Romania's on-time accession to the EU on 1 January 2007.

Ms Macovei, who was at odds with prime minister Tariceanu, has now been replaced by the young liberal politician Tudor Chiuariu, who has previously headed the anti-fraud unit in the prime minister's office.

The new cabinet consists of Liberals as well as members of the ethnic Hungarian UDMR party, with Mr Tariceanu on Monday ousting all Democratic Party ministers as well as independent ministers close to the Democrats, such as Ms Macovei. The opposition Social Democratic Party has promised its support for the new coalition, according to press reports.

But the reshuffle is unlikely to end the climate of political instability in Romania, with president Basescu instead continuing his calls for early elections - an idea strongly rejected by the Liberals.

The political crisis in the EU member state has in the past few weeks made its mark on several fronts, with Bucharest most recently operating without a foreign minister following president Basescu's refusal to accept a candidate proposed by prime minister Tariceanu.

Mr Tariceanu also cited the "inappropriate domestic political climate" in Romania when he took the decision last month to postpone the elections of Romanian deputies to the European Parliament, scheduled for 13 May, until the second half of this year.

Romanian and Bulgarian citizens are currently still represented in the European Parliament by non-elected members, who worked in the EU assembly as observers before Bucharest and Sofia joined the EU last January.

But EU officials' main reason for concern about Bucharest's political turmoil is its lagging on political reforms which are seen as having slowed down since accession.

The European Commission last autumn imposed a series of benchmarks on Romania and Bulgaria which the two states have to meet in the area of the judiciary and corruption, with Bucharest and Sofia last week submitting progress reports to the commission.

EU officials are in April planning trips to Romania and Bulgaria to check work on the ground, with a commission report in May likely to note continuing backlogs in judicial reform and anti-graft efforts in both states.

If Bucharest and Sofia fail to meet commission benchmarks, Brussels could impose sanctions such as the non-recognition of Romanian or Bulgarian court verdicts at any time until three years after accession.