UK Ambassador to Romania “worried” that Criminal Code amendments could dent anticorruption efforts

The UK Ambassador to Romania Paul Brummell said in a statement that we are worried that the emergency ordinance announced on 31 January 2017 could limit the applicability of corruption crimes. Ambassador Brummell sent this message to Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu at a meeting with other ambassadors.

“The United Kingdom is one of the long-term supporters of Romania in its efforts to strengthen the rule of law and its anti-corruption fight”, the message said. “We have always had a fruitful dialogue in this topic with Romania’s governments, regardless of their political orientation. We collaborated with Romania throughout many years in order to help meet obligations taken on as part of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). The most recent report of the European Commission on the CVM, published on 25 January, stressed progress recorded by Romania in the past 10 years in the justice reform and in the anti-corruption fight, but also warned that legal amendments clearly aimed at weakening or limiting the applicability of corruption crime or that represented a major challenge to the independence or effectiveness of the National Anticorruption Agency (DNA) would trigger the reevaluation of progresses made.

Although it is the prerogative of the democratically elected Parliament and of the Romanian Government to set the country’s legislation, respecting the Constitution, we are worried that the emergency ordinance announced on January 31 could reduce the applicability of the corruption crime. Moreover, we are worried about the very limited nature of the consultation with the parties involved.

The UK Ambassador, together with other heads of other partner diplomatic missions in Bucharest, issued this point of view in a meeting with Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu on February 1. This talk will be followed by other discussions the UK will have with its Romanian partners”.

Georgeta Gheorghe