Romanian President Heads Wednesday’s Govt Meeting

Basescu said Tuesday he will request a special Parliament session early August, mainly to discuss the integrity agency law.

The President said the session's agenda should feature the ANI law and will also include the bill whereby trials would no longer be suspended on account of exceptions of unconstitutionality, as well as the "law of small reform" in the justice system, currently pending authorization by the High Council of Magistrates.

According to the President, the bill whereby trials would continue when exceptions of unconstitutionality are raised has been tacitly adopted by the Chamber of Deputies and has been under the Senate's debate since December 2009.

Basescu said he decided to request the Parliament session after the European Commission report on the Romanian justice system was published.

The EC said in its report released Tuesday it sees changes to the integrity agency law as a significant step back in the fight against corruption and said weakening the agency breaches commitments Romania has taken upon accession.

In April 2010, Romania's Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional important parts of the law on the National Integrity Agency (ANI), a EU-required body set up under the CVM to screen public officials' wealth and recommend prosecution over incompatibilities with public office and unjustified wealth.

"Responding to this ruling the Romanian Senate adopted a new law on ANI on 30 June 2010. However, this new law seriously undermines the process for effective verification, sanctioning and forfeiture of unjustified assets," the EC said in the report.

The EC said in the report the amended law restricts the transparency of financial and economic interests of dignitaries and public officials and excludes dissuasive sanctions that protect against corruption and interrupts the encouraging development of ANI and breaches commitments taken by Romania upon accession to the EU, in 2007.

The EC noted ANI's consolidation of its capacity and track record regarding the identification of unjustified wealth, incompatibilities and conflicts of interest but warned these achievements are threatened by detrimental changes to the law on ANI which were adopted on 30 June as a reaction to a decision by the Romanian Constitutional Court.

"The amendments to the law on ANI adopted by Parliament in response to the decision of the Constitutional Court remove the possibilities to sanction discrepancies between assets and income identified and therefore eliminates the control of dignitaries' and officials' accumulation of wealth whilst in public office. In excess of the requirements of the court, the other amendments introduced in Parliament reduce the effectiveness of ANI's investigations and the transparency of assets by introducing less comprehensive declarations," the report states.

Clearly, the report states, Parliament and Government have the responsibility to amend the law that was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court but equally, given the commitments made at the time of accession, it has the responsibility to find adequate legal ways to deliver on its EU commitments.

At the notice of President Traian Basescu, the Constitutional Court ruled on July 19 that the revised version of the law is unconstitutional, which, the EC said, provides an opportunity to adopt a new law in conformity with Romania's obligations.

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