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Council of Europe report acknowledges Romania´s efforts in prosecuting corruption, calls for more effective prevention measures
In a report published Friday, the Council of Europe´s anti-corruption body (GRECO) stresses that there is in Romania an unprecedented determination in combating corruption-related crimes affecting public institutions. However it calls on its authorities to step up its efforts toprevent it by developing integrity rules for parliamentarians, and increasing the effectiveness of existing measures for judges and prosecutors.
Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland said: “Romania has taken important steps to investigate and prosecute corruption. It now needs to develop a more robust and effective system of prevention which would address problematic situations even before they turn into a criminal conduct”.
GRECO´s report points out that Romania is still at an early stage of implementation of corruption preventive policies for parliamentarians. The legislative process needs to become more transparent, to limit the use of expedited procedures, and to avoid the risks of manipulation.
The report calls for the adoption of a code of conduct, rules on gifts and other benefits and on relations with third parties, including lobbyists. Other areas for improvement include the way occasional conflicts of interest are to be handled and ensuring the effectiveness of incompatibilities.
GRECO also urges Romania to review its system of immunities and to make parliamentarians aware of their obligations.
Judges and prosecutors are subject to career-related mechanisms and general rights and obligations to protect their integrity. However, GRECO underlines that practice has shown that there is a need to strengthen the overall supervision by the Superior Council of Magistracy and the heads of courts and prosecutorial offices to avoid that inappropriate conducts are tolerated. The code of conduct of 2005 needs to be better tailored to address concrete situations.
The report also calls for a review of the conditions for the appointment and dismissal of senior prosecutors to limit risks of political interference and to secure their objective impartiality.
On the positive side, Romania’s system for the declaration of income, assets and interests –which applies to many categories of officials including parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors, and is supervised by the National Integrity Agency – is exemplary in several aspects, although its working methods may need to be revised.
The implementation of the 13 recommendations addressed to Romania in this report will be assessed by GRECO in the second half of 2017 through its compliance procedure.
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The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) is a Council of Europe body that aims to improve the capacity of its members to fight corruption by monitoring their compliance with anti-corruption standards. It helps states to identify deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies, prompting the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms. Currently it comprises 48 European states and the United States of America.