U.S. Ambassador Supports Romanian President’s Stance On Integrity Agency Bill

Gitenstein said the current version of the law regulating the national integrity agency, or ANI, weakens the agency "beyond what was required by the court decision." The Ambassador added that he supports Basescu's stance on the bill and that Senator Gyorgy Frunda did not manage to convince him "that the President was wrong". Gitenstein also expressed his disappointment regarding the fact that "the key procedural vote only failed by one (52-51)."

Frunda, the chairman of Senate's Human Rights Committee, said during plenary debates on the integrity agency bill Wednesday that the Senate was politically pressured into adopting a certain version of the draft. Frunda found it unacceptable that the German and the U.S. ambassadors to Bucharest took part in the committee's debates on the bill.

The ANI bill was amended by the committees for legal matters at President Traian Basescu's request. Senate committees rejected Tuesday most of Basescu's propositions on the bill, such as establishing wealth checkup committees, extending the statement verification period to three years, or making it mandatory for public figures to state whether any of their relatives run businesses on taxpayer money.

The committee adopted the president's proposition to make wealth statements mandatory for candidates in local, parliamentary or presidential elections. Senators also agreed to eliminate an article whereby corrective alterations made to false statements are not considered a criminal offence, if made before the agency has taken any action in the matter. Senators included a new article which stipulates that wealth statements must be renewed within 90 days after the law is published in the Official Journal.

During debates in the Senate, Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu argued against the adoption of the Senate committee version, highlighting that the new ANI law will directly affect the European Commission's report on Romania's progress in the justice system.

Romania's integrity agency bill was adopted on June 22 through the definitive vote of the country's Chamber of Deputies, after Basescu had resent the draft law to Parliament. The bill was stripped of its main attributions in screening public officials wealth and interest statements by a Constitutional Court ruling.

Romania's integrity agency was set up in 2007 at the European Union's recommendation to make public officials more accountable and crack down on endemic corruption. It has targeted politicians and officials in all parties.

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