After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, Romania has struggled with corruption and establishing a well-functioning judicial system. In 2005, when the treaty was signed with the European Union, former president Traian Băsescu mentioned that "Romania [was] not yet be prepared to meet the European Union's standards." Since entering the EU, Romania has somewhat improved transparency and accountability in the public sector, but the European Commission still considers the government's reform to be slow and weak. The poor implementation of laws on the transparency of information and decision-making processes between government officials coupled with the bribes and conflicts of interests in public procurement practices makes the judicial system ineffective in fighting against corruption. This has had consequences in effectively using the European Union's funds towards developing the country. Although it plays a considerable role in the country's stagnant path towards progress, corruption is only one of the issues among others. Other factors include the administrative capacity of public purchasers, the lack of stability and fragmentation of the legal framework, the quality of competition in public procurement and few others listed in the Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council.