EC preliminary report on Romanian Justice: The Parliament blocks anti-corruption investigations

The European Commission’s report on Justice criticizes the regress of the anti-corruption campaign and Justice reform in Romania. EC spokesman Mark Gray declared that there are high-level corruption cases, but in many situations the Parliament blocked the investigations and attempted to impose restrictions to prosecutors. According to Gray, the pace of reforms is slower since July 2008. Still, Gray emphasized that the document is technical and does not refer to any European funds.

In his statements, Mark Gray once again underlined the importance of having significant progress noted before the next report. Romania must adopt its new Criminal Code and Criminal Procedures Code and, despite some good signals of the judicial reforms, still has to fasten up the pace, which slowed down since last year. The National Integrity Agency put up an operational history of cases, which must be maintained, Gray said.