Romania has developed an institutional and legal integrity framework to promote integrity and prevent corruption in the top executive functions of the central government and in the law enforcement agencies. However, improvement is still needed in several areas, according to a new report from the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) (see also the Romanian version of the report).
GRECO’s Fifth Round Evaluation Report on Romania evaluates the effectiveness of measures in place to prevent and combat corruption in top executive functions such as the President, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers, Secretaries and Undersecretaries of State, Presidential Advisers, State Advisers, State Councillors and Ministerial Advisers, and in staff members of the Police and the Gendarmerie.
The report identifies a number of areas where improvement is needed and contains 26 recommendations to address them. The Government’s frequent use of emergency ordinances to legislate in exceptional cases is an issue of serious concern that the authorities should address as a matter of priority. In addition, an independent mechanism should be established with oversight over the authorities’ refusal to disclose public interest information that is not regularly published or updated online.
The authorities are expected to report back to GRECO on the implementation of its recommendations by 31 December 2024, so it can assess the country’s level of compliance.
