Corruption in Romania has decreased in recent years. In particular since 2014, Romania undertook a significant anti-corruption effort that included the investigation and prosecution of medium- and high-level political, judicial and administrative officials by the

National Anticorruption Directorate The National Anticorruption Directorate ( ro, Direcția Națională Anticorupție (DNA)), formerly National Anticorruption Prosecution Office ( ro, Parchetul Național Anticorupție), is the Romanian agency tasked with preventing, investigating ...

. The

was established in 2002 by the Romanian government to investigate and prosecute medium and high-level corruption related offenses, using a model of organization inspired by similar structures in Norway, Belgium and Spain. Adrian Zuckerman, the US Ambassador in Romania, has stated in 2021 that "the

rule of law The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...

has been strengthened in Romania". Since 2022, the effectiveness of the investigation and sanctioning of high-level corruption further improved, including by advancing on cases that had been pending for years for procedural reasons.https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1658828718680&uri=CELEX%3A52022DC0500 Due to the successful tackling of corruption cases while leading the Romanian DNA during 2013-2018, Romanian prosecutor

Laura Codruța Kövesi Laura Codruța Kövesi (; ; born 15 May 1973) is the first European Chief Prosecutor and the former chief prosecutor of Romania's National Anticorruption Directorate ( ro, Direcția Națională Anticorupție - DNA, links=no), a position she hel ...

has been assigned as the first European Chief Prosecutor.

Background

After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, Romania has implemented a series of judicial reforms in order to bring itself to EU standards, such as the creation of the

in 2002, which would prosecute high-level cases of corruption. Since entering the EU, Romania has improved transparency and accountability in the

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, infra ...

, although weaknesses still remained. In 2012, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

expressed concerns about the

, pointing to the power struggle between Prime Minister

Victor Ponta Victor Viorel Ponta (; born 20 September 1972) is a Romanian jurist and politician, who served as Prime Minister of Romania between his appointment by President Traian Băsescu in May 2012 and his resignation in November 2015. A former member of ...

and President

Traian Băsescu Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a conservatism, conservative Romanian politician who served as President of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian Minister of Transport on multiple occasions ...

, which gave rise to what is called the 2012 political crisis. The Commission also criticized Romania for failing to root out corruption in its state institutions. One year later, the Chamber of Deputies passed without parliamentary debate several controversial amendments to the

Penal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

, including that the country's president, senators, members of the lower chamber, as well as lawyers are no longer to be considered "public officials". These actors can as a result take part in illicit interests without being held accountable for

abuse of office Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

bribery Bribery is the Offer and acceptance, offering, Gift, giving, Offer and acceptance, receiving, or Solicitation, soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With reg ...

conflicts of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

and other corruption crimes. The amendments were sharply criticized by Romanian opposition parties and European leaders, while the

Constitutional Court of Romania The Constitutional Court of Romania ( ro, Curtea Constituțională a României) is the institution which rules on whether the laws, decrees or other bills enacted by Romanian authorities are in conformity with the Constitution of Romania, Constitu ...

cataloged this move as unconstitutional. The proposed changes to the Penal Code were finally repealed due to large-scale civil protests in 2017. Since 2014, an anti-corruption drive has been launched by the

, which led to arrests of many high-ranking officials in government, business, as well as judges and prosecutors. Romania implemented the revised EU Public Procurement Directives in 2016 by passing new laws to improve and make public procurements more transparent. The National Agency for Public Procurement (ANAP) has general oversight over procurements and can draft legislation, but procurement decisions remain with the procuring entities. State entities as well as public and private beneficiaries of EU funds are required by law to follow public procurement legislation and use the e-procurement system. Sectoral procurements, including private companies in energy and transportation, must follow the public procurement laws and tender via the e-procurement website. The April 2021 EU Country Report for Romania, which included data on the public procurement system in Romania for the period between 2018-2020, noted that the practical application of innovation-driven public procurement solutions remained a challenge. As of March 2022, Romania was implementing 12 commitments from their 2020-2022 action plan. This action plan featured commitments related to civic space, participation, consultation, social services, anti-corruption, fiscal transparency, justice and integrity, health and social accountability, de-bureaucratization, and open data.

Colectiv nightclub fire and subsequent protests

In terms of scandals, corruption was cited among many issues that provoked the 2012–15 social unrest, the

2015 protests Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak album ...

following the

Colectiv nightclub fire The Colectiv nightclub fire was a deadly fire in Bucharest, Romania, on 30 October 2015, which killed 64 people (26 on site, 38 in hospitals) and injured 146. The fire, which was the deadliest fire in the country's history, occurred during a free ...

, and the

2017 protests Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanese ...

. Since the Colectiv nightclub fire, the Romanian civil society has been sensitive to corruption issues undertaken at political levels, in both parliament as well as the government.

Asset and interest disclosure

In Romania, the electronic submission of asset and interest disclosures is mandatory since January 2022, though some challenges exist with regard to the effective verification of the submitted data.

Statistics

According to

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...

's annual

Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entru ...

, as of 2021 Romania is ranked as the 66th least corrupt country in the Index. The Corruption Perceptions Index scores 180 countries on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("highly clean") and then ranks the countries by score. The country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. Romania's 2021 rank of 66th derives from a score of 45. For comparison, the best score was 88 (ranked 1), and the worst score was 11 (ranked 180). In recent years, Romania's rank has improved from 69th in 2020 and 70th in 2019, scoring 44 in both years. In the 2014

EU Anti-Corruption Report The EU Anti-Corruption Report was the European Commission's short-lived anti-corruption reporting mechanism. The report was planned to be published on a bi-annual basis to monitor and assess the efforts of member states of the European Union in t ...

, 57% of the Romanians were most likely to say they are personally affected by corruption (at par with

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

Anti-corruption efforts

In 2014, the

indicted 1,138 authorities. Among them were politicians, judges and prosecutors, and businessmen. In 2015, the number of filed cases against high-level politicians and businessmen that committed corrupt acts increased by an additional 1,250 people and has had a substantial social impact. Out of those people are Prime Minister

, 5 ministers, and 21 parliamentarians. There have been 970 final convictions throughout the year and the amount of damages recovered has increased to €194.37 million. In 2016, 1,270 more people were brought to trial, including 3 ministers, 17 parliamentarians, 47 mayors, 16 magistrates, and 21 CEOs. The amount of damages recovered has increased to €226 million. 2017 marked the year where an additional 997 individuals were accused and found guilty by the

, including the former

President of the Chamber of Deputies President of the Chamber of Deputies may refer to: * List of presidents of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies * List of presidents of the Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia * President of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) * President of the Chamber of Dep ...

, 6 parliamentarians, 3 ministers, 49 mayors, 6 magistrates and 11 CEOs. The amount of damages recovered has decreased to €159.5 million. In January 2017, the newly appointed government modified the Penal Code and Penal Procedure Code overnight as a way to fix the issue of overcrowding in prisons. Opponents released accusations that the government has actually modified the Codes as a way to decriminalize political corruption, to release former politicians from prison without punishment and to stop any accusations and investigations made to current authorities. 24 hours later, the biggest protest since the fall of communism was witnessed, with 300,000 civilians manifesting their opposition to the government's actions in front of Victoria Palace. In February 2017, the protests held reached an unprecedented turnout of 500,000 people. The anti-corruption measures taken by civilians resulted in the withdrawal of the bills and the resignation of the former minister of justice. Since then, multiple protests composed of hundreds of thousands of Romanians have continued as a way to tackle corruption within the government. According to the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission, the promotion of integrity, accountability, and transparency by civil society organizations have made significant contributions to the decline of corruption.”

References

External links

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09668136.2015.1045834 tandfonline.com], Michael Hein: ''The Fight Against Government Corruption in Romania: Irreversible Results or Sisyphean Challenge?'' June 2015.
Romania Corruption Profile
from the Business-Anti-Corruption Portal, Business Anti-Corruption Portal
National Anticorruption Directorate
* https://www.transparency.org/country/ROU# {{Europe topic , Corruption in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Politics of Romania