Romania has formally requested by the European Commission to improve its Value Added Tax (VAT) recovery process. The caused for opinion from the European Commission, the step before proceedings at the European Court of Justice, states that the time to repay claims under the EU 8th Value Added Tax (VAT) directive take in excess of 6 months.  This is far in excess of the normal time taken by other EC member states. Romania has to reply now to the EC or face a referral to the European Court of Justice after sixty days.