Romania’s compliance with Council of Europe recommendations to tackle corruption among members of parliament (MPs), judges and prosecutors remains unsatisfactory, according to the 47-member human rights organisation.

Bucharest has satisfactorily implemented or dealt with only four of 13 recommendations made in 2015 and one of five made in a follow up evaluation in 2019, the council’s Group of States against Corruption (Greco) says in its latest report checking on how well Romania is adopting the 18 suggested measures.

“Greco therefore concludes that the current level of compliance with the recommendations remains globally unsatisfactory,” it added.

The group is asking Romania to provide a report on actions taken to implement the pending 13 recommendations by 31 March next year.

Among those not yet implemented are establishing a robust set of restrictions concerning gifts, hospitality, favours and other benefits for MPs and ensuring the system is properly understood and enforceable; clarifying rules related to conflicts of interest for MPs; and ensuring the prosecution service’s independence to the largest extent possible.

Since an interim compliance report in 2019, there have been only very minor improvements relating to MPs, but some measures have been taken and more promising initiatives are underway which have potential to rectify many of the pending shortcomings with judges and prosecutors, Greco said in its latest evaluation.

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