Legal Framework Against Corruption

Delegates from 50 countries, including Romania, participated in the anti-corruption summit held in London.

Corina Cristea, 13.05.2016, 14:46

The first Anti-Corruption Summit hosted in London on
Thursday by the British PM David Cameron
unequivocally re-launched the fight against corruption as a global and
necessary priority in combating poverty and ensuring sustainable development.
The participant countries, including Romania, committed themselves to using and
enforcing the existing international agreements, so as to turn the fight
against corruption into a priority, both at domestic and international level.

Bucharest, which has been harshly criticized in the past years for its lack of
sufficient measures aimed at combating corruption and which is still under the
EU’s scrutiny and monitoring, was represented at the summit by the Justice
Minister Raluca Pruna. At a conference held on the eve of the summit, she
talked about Romania’s experience in fighting this scourge.

Justice Minister
Raluca Pruna: It’s been a long journey, which we embarked upon 14 years ago and I believe
that today we call ourselves champions of the fight against top level
corruption in the region. We have not won the war yet, the fighting is still
on, but I believe we have reached a level where we can share from our
experience.

Raluca Pruna said the Romanian
Government would strongly support the national anti-corruption bodies by
providing a stable legislation, adequate resources and independence from the
political pressure, which, she said, has been quite high, especially in the past few weeks.

Raluca Pruna: I
can strongly state that today we are in a situation in which we can rely on the
legislative background, when we do have the right institutional framework and
we are probably witnessing one of the greatest offensives in the fight against
corruption. The times are serious, and we must make sure that what has been
achieved with such great difficulty is maintained. We must make sure that
nobody is immune to justice, and that the outcome of crime, including
corruption, is seized and what has been stolen from society is given back to society.

In Romania, the value of the assets
seized as a result of investigations into cases of corruption stands at half a
billion Euros, and the institutions that have been on the front line of the
battle against corruption, namely the National Anti-Corruption Directorate and
the National Integrity Agency, are today recognized as reliable partners and
providers of good practices at international level. In an exclusive interview
to Radio Romania, Raluca Pruna has announced she envisages potential improvements
of the legislative framework regarding the fight against corruption.