Europe Rebukes Romania on Democratic Efforts BRUSSELS - Five years after it joined the European Union, Romania came in for unusually harsh public criticism on Wednesday over its respect for democratic values as the European Commission announced stepped-up monitoring of the country. Romania and Bulgaria joined the bloc in 2007, but on the condition that they submit to regular reviews from Brussels because of concerns about corruption and organized crime in the countries. The European Commission could have decided on Wednesday to discontinue the reports, which are seen as a stigma in Bucharest and Sofia, but opted instead to continue the monitoring. "Progress has been made in both Bulgaria and Romania, but the process is not yet sustainable and irreversible," said a commission spokesman, Mark Gray. The focus is very much now on shifting to implementation. But whereas Bulgaria was given extra breathing room, until the end of 2013, before its next report, Romania was told that "urgent" action was needed to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law, after a clash between its newly elected government and the sitting president provoked a constitutional crisis. After being called to Brussels for a reproach last week, the Romanian prime minister, Victor Ponta, promised in writing to undo his government's emergency measures that had raised concerns. A referendum on impeaching President Traian Basescu will go ahead on July 29, but under rules endorsed by the constitutional court. The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said Wednesday, "Romania has stepped back from the edge, but we cannot yet say that we have reached the end of the process." Mr. Barroso warned that the recent "exceptional" events in Romania, including "challenging judicial decisions, undermining the constitutional court, overturning established procedures and removing key checks and balances," had "shaken our trust." "Party political strife cannot justify overriding core democratic principles," Mr. Barroso said, an allusion to the bitter rivalry between Mr. Ponta, who leads a center-left coalition, and the center-right president. Politicians must not try to intimidate judges ahead of decisions, or attack judges when they take decisions they do not like. The competences of the constitutional court cannot be changed overnight. In a statement issued in Bucharest, Mr. Ponta called the report "balanced" and said Romania should "draw the necessary conclusions." Diplomats in Brussels had trouble remembering a previous occasion where the commission had dared chastise a member state so strongly. But Mr. Barroso had strong backing from several capitals, including Berlin. The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said in a statement, "We must not allow violations to happen against our common European values, of which democracy and the rule of law are central." Heather Grabbe, director of the Open Society Institute-Brussels, which is backed by the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, welcomed the tough language, but said the European Union needed better ways than peer pressure to ensure that all its members adhered to the rules. "The problem remains that the E.U. lacks an established mechanism and set of criteria on democratic standards that is transparent and applied to all member states," she said in an e-mail. The political turmoil in Romania has weighed on its battered economy, which is backstopped by a standby loan of €5 billion, or $6 billion, from the International Monetary Fund. The I.M.F. has delayed sending a scheduled review mission to Bucharest until July 31, after the referendum. Meanwhile, Romania's currency, the leu, has sunk to all-time lows against the euro. The next E.U. report on Romania is due to be presented before year-end. Normally, the next one would not be due until July 2013, with an interim version in February. For Bulgaria, the next report will not be due until December 2013. Mr. Gray said the extra time was "to give Bulgaria the time now to establish that track record of convincing results." In a statement, Bulgaria's prime minister, Boiko Borissov, noted that the commission had praised his government's "strong political will for reform" for the third consecutive year. At the same time, he said, "we are aware that the new approach and the institutional changes within the judiciary are still not achieving the results that we all desire." A recent report, done by the Open Society Institute in Sofia, shows that 77 percent of Bulgarians support the E.U. monitoring of their country. But Ivanka Ivanova, the institute's law program director, said Wednesday that it had yet to stimulate real change. "There has been some progress," she said, "but it's not enough to meet the expectations of Bulgarian citizens and the European Commission." Boryana Dzhambazova contributed reporting from Paris.