The national integrity law and the special parliamentary session

Seriously damaged by a Constitutional Court ruling which stripped it of its most important responsibilities and later by the Senate, the National Integrity Agency, the body in charge of verifying dignitaries’ assets, is now undergoing repair work in the two parliamentary chambers in Bucharest.


The members of the two chambers were summoned by the president to attend an emergency session meant to resuscitate the Agency so that it may meet European Union requirements. The legal committee of the Chamber of Deputies has already passed the new law on the National Integrity Agency, a law which is to be debated by deputies on Monday, the 16th of August.


Under this new law, the obligation to fill in wealth declarations will also apply to trade union leaders as well. Wealth declarations, to be posted on the Internet, will contain information about jewellery, bank accounts and property, without having to disclose the addresses of the houses. Deputies hope that amendment will spare the law further appeals at the Constitutional Court on grounds that it violates privacy rights. Wealth declarations will also contain any contracts signed by the respective dignitaries with the state and their credit cards. If passed by deputies, the National Integrity Agency law will go to the Senate, where it was first severely amputated, something which earned Romania some very harsh criticism from the European Commission.


Apart from the National Integrity Agency law and two other bills seen as a priority, mainly concerning the stepping up of trials in the judiciary, the senators are planning to discuss other issues as well. Among them is the decentralisation process in the healthcare sector, a government ordinance related to the local public finances and the bill on the modification of the VAT rate from 19% to 24%, which has already taken effect. The issues are on the agenda at the request of the opposition. MPs may also discuss a proposal by the youngest parliamentary party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania, to introduce a solidarity tax on assets whose declared value exceeds 450,000 euros. The biggest expectations from this special parliamentary session are, however, related to the reinvigoration of the National Integrity Agency.


However, the media is sceptical in this respect. The daily paper Evenimentul Zilei writes that the declassification of wealth declarations is for appearance’s sake and predicts that the new National Integrity Agency will only work on paper. The MPs and the government, the paper writes, compete in statements calling for the transparency of wealths, aware that the senators will do their best to classify them as they have done so far. The most aggressive opposition daily paper, Jurnalul National, sees the National Integrity Agency as an institution, an instrument of Power, that “hangs on to Integrity to save Romania’s European image”.

(Radio România Internaţional, Serviciul în limba engleză).