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Romanian President Criticizes Lawmakers’ Failure To Wipe Out Corruption

Romanian President Traian Basescu criticized lawmakers in his address in Parliament Wednesday saying political parties not only didn’t stick to their commitment to get the European Commission to stop monitoring the justice field, but also hindered prosecutors’ efforts.
Romanian President Criticizes Lawmakers’ Failure To Wipe Out Corruption
24 sept. 2008, 12:39, English

The president said the main issue Romanians face every day is corruption.

"Corruption eats away at people’s confidence ion the rule of law and the state institutions’ failure to counter this phenomenon has come to question the very fairness of Romania’s EU accession in January 2007," Basescu said.
 
The head of state mentioned the double standard of politicians who kept the legal system from doing its job, by halting criminal investigations against lawmakers. Basescu said politicians gave tolerated, in a European Union member state, the existence of two categories of citizens: the politically protected and those equal under the law.
 
"As the European Commission required, I think Parliament must make a firm commitment to wipe out top-level corruption and not stand in the way of justice,” Basescu said.
 
The Chamber of Deputies halted in August prosecutions for graft on former prime minister Adrian Nastase and former transport minister Miron Mitrea.
 
The European Commission said at that time that substantial progress in the fight against high level corruption, including in cases involving MPs and acting and former members of government, remains Romania’s main challenge in delivering upon its obligations to the EU taken at the time of accession.
 
In its July 23 report on Romanian justice, the Commission warned the country to clean up its act or face sanctions.
 
In its most recent corruption perceptions index published Tuesday, Transparency International said Romania is no longer the most corrupt country in the European Union as in 2007, as the position has been filled by neighbor Bulgaria.
 
However, the 3.8 index Romania scored (on a scale of 0 to 10) is not ground for joy, according to officials of Transparency International Romania, considering that Romania’s score increased a mere 0.1 points compared to 2007, and the switch of places with Bulgaria is due to the fact that Bulgaria’s index dropped half a point in the same interval.
 
"It’s as if a sick person’s temperature dropped to 39.7 degrees from 39.8 degrees, in which case that person is still far from healthy,” Transparency International Romania leader, Victor Alistar, told a press conference Tuesday.