EC report again puts finger on Romania’s corruption issues

The European Commission’s country report on Romania shows that the irreversibility of the progress in the fight against corruption was recently put at risk. “The continued good results of the judicial institutions in the fight against corruption were largely brought into question by events throughout the past year. The ongoing reforms of the justice laws risk harming judicial independence and undoing progress achieved over the past 10 years. Moreover, judicial institutions and the legal framework for fighting corruption crimes continue to be under intense pressure,” reads the report. Romania has a solid anti-corruption legal framework and the track record of the judicial institutions fighting corruption was maintained in 2017, according to the EC. However, the judicial institutions and the legal framework for fighting corruption crimes have been facing intense pressure. Several legislative amendments under debate in Parliament raised serious concerns over the ability of the judicial institutions to effectively continue the fight against corruption. “Corruption persists at all levels and remains an obstacle for doing business,” the report also points out. Over 80% of the businesses in Romania identified corruption, patronage and nepotism as obstacles to doing business, while 86 % of companies thought that bribery and the use of connections was the easiest way to obtain certain public services and 70 % thought that the only way to succeed in business is to have political connections. US Ambassador: We have full confidence in Romania’s Anticorruption Directorate editor@romania-insider.com