EU member states Romania and Bulgaria have more in common with candidate countries such as Croatia and other potential candidates in the western Balkans than just a shared Communist past, said a range of jurists and commentators brought together under at the International Leaders Summit, a talk-fest organised by conservative US and European think-tanks.” The speakers said that much of the east is also afflicted by “widespread corruption”, “organised crime”, conflicts of interests and unjustifiable wealth of senior officials, lack of political accountability and a culture of impunity in public administration. The list of criticisms was long, but, they declared, the EU seems ill equipped to do something about it.”There are clear regional characteristics that appear across eastern Europe and the risk is that the lessons we learn in one country as it develops are not transferred to the next country,” British prosecutor Rupert Vining said. “We repeatedly see difficulties around party finances,” he continued. “We also see the issue of possession of unexplained wealth by senior public figures.