Corruption in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

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 (), formerly National Anticorruption Prosecution Office (), is the Romanian agency tasked with preventing, investigating and prosecuting Political corruption, corruption-related offenses (such as bribery, g ...

. 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 essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

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. Due to the successful tackling of corruption cases while leading the Romanian

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

during 2013–2018, Romanian prosecutor

Laura Codruța Kövesi Laura Codruța Kövesi (; ; born 15 May 1973) is the first European Public Prosecutor's Office, European Chief Prosecutor and the former chief prosecutor of Romania's National Anticorruption Directorate (), a position she held from 2013 until ...

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, pu ...

, although weaknesses still remained. In 2012, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

expressed concerns about the

, pointing to the power struggle between Prime Minister

Victor Ponta Victor Viorel Ponta (; born 20 September 1972) is a Romanian politician and jurist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from 2012 to 2015. He was president of the Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Party (PSD) from 2010 to ...

and President

Traian Băsescu Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a Romanian politician who served as the president of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian minister of transport on multiple occasions between 1991 and 2000, ...

, 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 Crime, offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that ...

, 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,

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

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 in whi ...

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 () is the institution which rules on whether the laws, decrees or other bills enacted by Romanian authorities are in conformity with the Constitution. It consists of nine members serving nine-year terms which ...

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 and 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) *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), 2007 * ''15'' (Phatfish album), 2008 * ...

following the Colectiv nightclub fire, and the

2017 protests Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number) * One of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017, 2117 Science * Chlorine, a halogen in the periodic table * 17 Thetis, an asteroid in the asteroid belt Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (America ...

. 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 ...

's annual

Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index that scores and ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as assessed by experts and business executives. The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entr ...

, as of 2024 Romania is ranked as the 65th least country in the Index. The Corruption Perceptions Index scores 180 countries on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean") and then ranks the countries by score. The country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. Romania's 2024 rank of 65th derives from a score of 46. For comparison with regional scores, the highest score among Western European and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

countries was 90, the average score was 64 and the lowest score was 41. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 8 (ranked 180). In the 2014 EU Anti-Corruption Report, 57% of the Romanians were most likely to say they are personally affected by corruption (at par with

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

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, 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.”

Notes

References

External links

The Fight Against Government Corruption in Romania: Irreversible Results or Sisyphean Challenge?
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
National Anticorruption Directorate

Romania
{{Europe topic , Corruption in Corruption in Romania,

Politics of Romania

Crime in Romania Law of Romania Economy of Romania Government of Romania Society of Romania