The
political class in Romania surpassed itself last week. Without any warning or
discussion they passed a draft law to protect themselves against prosecution
for corruption. Under the proposed law, the president, members of parliament,
and lawyers would no longer be classed as public officials, thus protecting
them from charges of abuse of office, bribe-taking, conflict of interest, and
other corruption crimes, Officials who have been convicted of such crimes may
be exonerated if the bill becomes law.
The
bill has not yet been sent for President Basescu’s signature. He can return the bill for
revision only once.
Prime
Minister Victor Ponta – on his return from Nelson Mandela’s funeral - seemed to accept on 12 December that the law
needed to be discussed again, and if it is endorsed by legal experts, that Romania
should ask the European Commission to say whether it breaks any of the
country’s international obligations.
The
anti-corruption agency DNA says 28 parliamentarians are on trial or serving
prison sentences for corruption and more than 100
mayors and deputy mayors are on trial for financial crimes. The bill sharply
contradicts Romania’s obligations under European and UN anti-corruption
agreements, the DNA said.
One
frequent blogger on things Romanian sets the scene and gives further detail here
No comments:
Post a Comment