Council of Europe’s GRECO says progress made, but Romania must do more to prevent corruption among MPs

Romania has made progress in implementing anti-corruption safeguards, but must step up efforts to prevent corruption among members of parliament, the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) said. In a report published on Thursday, January 22, the monitoring body noted that several key measures concerning parliamentarians remain only partly fulfilled or unaddressed.

In its latest assessment, GRECO said that Romania has fully implemented eight of 13 recommendations contained in the Fourth Round Evaluation Report, adopted in 2015, on the prevention of corruption in respect of parliamentarians, judges, and prosecutors. The remaining five recommendations relate exclusively to members of parliament, with two only partly implemented and three not implemented at all.

“GRECO acknowledges substantial progress on the regulation of lobbying. It welcomes the adoption in September 2025 of a legislative proposal introducing registration and disclosure requirements for lobbyists and MPs, together with enforcement and monitoring mechanisms,” GRECO said.

“However, no progress has been reported in preventing conflicts of interest or in establishing robust restrictions on gifts, hospitality, favours, and other benefits for parliamentarians,” it added in the statement.

The report also highlighted steps taken by the Senate to improve transparency in plenary sittings and committee work, as well as proposals aimed at enhancing integrity through specialised training and counselling for MPs. Nevertheless, GRECO noted that these measures have not yet been put into practice.

“Moreover, no progress has been recorded on introducing criteria for when in-camera meetings can be held, nor on ensuring that the urgent legislative procedure is applied only as an exception,” reads the same press release.

On the other hand, however, GRECO recalled that all recommendations concerning judges and prosecutors were fully implemented in earlier follow-up reports.

The Romanian authorities are expected to report back to GRECO on the actions taken to implement the five outstanding recommendations by November 30, 2026.

The Group of States against Corruption comprises the 46 Council of Europe member states, Kazakhstan and the United States of America.

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