Since its founding in 1990, the Venice Commission has advised post-communist states, including Romania, on constitutional reforms. Although Romaniawas not a full member initially, it received guidance during the drafting of its firstdemocratic constitution. This research examines how well Romanian legislationaligns with the Commission’s standards on democratic governance and politicalparty regulation, identifying any gaps or inconsistencies. Given Romania’stotalitarian past, special focus is placed on protecting political opposition, freedomof expression within parties, and the limits of imperative mandates. The study useslegal analysis, case studies on political controversies and Constitutional Courtdecisions, and reviews from think tanks—especially following the 2015 politicalparty law reform. It concludes by proposing legislative directions to better alignRomania with European democratic norms.

The Republic of Türkiye is the state that has the longest EU candidature,due to several events and policies that led to the prolongation of the process. Thecountry’s internal and implicitly external profile have faced significant changes fromthe 1923 moment when the Republic of Türkiye was founded, having a great impacton the Turkish society. We shall focus our attention on the ideological dimension,i.e. extendedly the set of ideas – social, cultural and political – that motivate Turks’non-integration. These aspects are related to: doctrines, identity, religion, politicalideology. The main objective of this paper is to present and analyse some of the mostimportant ideological motivations from the Turkish perspective regarding theEuropean integration. We shall, therefore, present not only why Türkiye is not amember state, but also and most importantly, the way in which the motivations arerooted in the Turkish perception.

Many people think of slavery as a matter of the past with little relevance to today's world. But nonetheless, this institution continues to constitute a thriving research field for sociologists, historians, and economists. The present paper examines the issue of modern slavery as related to forced labour and labour exploitation, analyses the labour legislation of the European Union, and gathers several cases of forced labour/ labour exploitation involving Romanian workers. The purpose of the present paper is achieved using content analysis, a qualitative research method. The results suggested that, despite the European Union's extensive labour regulations, it still encounters situations of forced labour/ labour exploitation where basic worker rights and protection are not upheld; the findings highlight the need for greater consideration, further research, and solutions for this issue, together with special concern towards the clear distinctions between forced labour and labour exploitation.

This paper seeks to make a theoretical contribution to the concept of democracy. The conceptualization of democracy is a widely linked with periodic elections that allow citizens to choose their leaders. However, this paper argues that democracy is more than just a matter of holding elections every few years. This narrow definition overlooks the substance and meaning of democracy, which encompasses a broad range of values and principles beyond the mere act of voting. In particular, the paper highlights three key dimensions of democracy that are critical for its meaningfulness: (1) participation and empowerment, (2) transparency and accountability, and (3) deliberation and collaboration. Through a review of existing literature, the paper demonstrates that these dimensions are interrelated and mutually reinforcing, and contribute to a more robust and sustainable democracy. The paper concludes by arguing that while elections are an important component of democracy, they are not an end in themselves, but rather one of the many tools that can help facilitate and reinforce a meaningful democracy.