President: EC Statement That Romania Breaches Accession Commitments Unacceptable

The head of state told a news conference that he shares the European Commission’s „dissatisfaction” with the law regulating the functioning of the country’s National Integrity Agency (ANI), but added that this matter is just an „incident.”

Basescu said it is not fair that problems regarding the ANI law should overshadow the progress made by Romania in the justice sector, adding he is confident that Romanian politicians will adopt the proper solutions so that the law will observe the country’s accession commitments.

The EC justice report on Romania released Tuesday reads that „Romania does not show sufficient political commitment to support the reform process. The amendments to the law on the National Integrity Agency voted on 30 June represent a serious step back. The law puts at risk the positive track-record which ANI had achieved and puts Romania in clear breach of its accession commitments. The Commission calls upon Romania to honor its commitments by finding the most appropriate legal means to re-establish ANI’s powers to propose the effective forfeiture of unjustified wealth.”

Last week, Basescu challenged with the Constitutional Court the revised version of the ANI law voted on June 30, citing breaches of certain constitutional provisions regarding law adoption procedures and the powers of the two chambers of the Parliament. The Romanian Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional the revised version of the ANI law and the Parliament will restart debates on the normative act.