"No minimum cap" for the damage in case of abuse of office

The Romanian justice minister Tudorel Toader announced on Wednesday that the bill aimed to harmonize the provisions of the Criminal Codes with the rulings issued by the Constitutional Court will be open for public debate and then submitted to Parliament to undergo the appropriate legislative procedures.

He underlined that the bill does not establish a minimum cap for the damage caused in a case of abuse of office. Partially decriminalising the offence of abuse of office, by introducing a ceiling of 45,000 Euro, under which such acts would have not been considered criminal offences, was one of the amendments introduced by Toader's predecessor Florin Iordache in the controversial emergency decree number 13, adopted in January.

The emergency decree, which was later repealed, caused the largest street protests in post-communist Romania.