Romanian Reactions to the EU Report

It is the first time that the EU executive explicitly says that Romania has not met the commitments it made upon joining the Union.

The report slams the new form of the law regarding the National Integrity Agency, a body created to verify the dignitaries’ assets.

According to the Commission, the law –as it was endorsed by the Romanian parliament after the Constitutional Court invalidated it - is a big step backwards in the fight against corruption.


The law’s main flaw is allegedly the elimination of the ability to sanction incompatibilities between identified assets and incomes.

As a result, the control of fortunes amassed during politicians’ terms in office would no longer be possible.

This latest form of the law, however, was also ruled unconstitutional, so now Parliament has the opportunity to amend it. It is what president Traian Basescu hopes to achieve.

He is determined to urge Parliament to meet in an extraordinary session, to hasten the legislative process as regards the Integrity Agency.



Another weak point that the European Commission has identified is the fact that Romanian authorities hardly ever identify and sanction cases of conflict of interests and cancel very few tenders suspected of fraud.

While the National Anti-Corruption Directorate is again praised for the inquiries into cases of top-level corruption, the courts are slammed for trial slowness.


Despite drawbacks that the Romanian legal system continues to face, the European Commission does not mention potential sanctions.

European Commission spokesperson Mark Grey took note of the general public’s support for the recommendations made by the Commission and said it was high time for the Romanian authorities to honour their commitments.

The romanian president criticized the report



Without contesting its technical accuracy, Basescu criticized the report for its exaggeratedly political tone and the unacceptable wording according to which Romania broke the commitments it made when joining the EU.

The president said Bucharest would draft its own report on the state of the Romanian judiciary, to be submitted to the EU members and the European Commission.


In turn, Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu has voiced his discontent with respect to the delay of the National Integrity Agency law, which has unfairly overshadowed important achievements.

Prosecutor General Laura Codruta Kovesi has said though that the Commission’s analysis was objective and that the reforms of the Romanian judicial system must go on.

(Radio România Internaţional, Serviciul în limba engleză).