The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence will host a lecture, "Romania's Transition and European Integration: The Curious History of a Kleptocratic Democracy," featuring Professor Andrea Wagner of MacEwan University.

European integration has served as an essential instrument for promoting democratic consolidation and anti-corruption institutional development in Romania. Yet the symbiotic relationship between corrupt political parties and state structures has continued despite the country’s EU membership. Since February, Romania has seen the largest protests since the fall of communism over an executive order that would have decriminalized certain corruption offenses. This presentation will address the importance of these demonstrations, the survival of a corrupt political elite and the future of Romania’s anti-corruption body, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate.

Andrea Wagner (PhD Carleton University) is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at MacEwan University (Edmonton, Canada) and a consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, providing the European Commission with regular updates and analytical reports on Romania’s anti-corruption efforts. Her research interests focus on corruption and rent-seeking in post-communist EU member states, specifically countries that have established an independent Anti-Corruption Agency.

This event is supported by Carleton’s Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence.

For questions about this lecture, please contact Jennifer Diamond at jennifer.diamond@carleton.ca.

For upcoming CES events, please visit the CES events webpage.