British Ambassador Paul Brummell said that Romania, which had committed, when joining the EU in 2007, to present ‘a cleaner country’, has made progress in fighting corruption and reforming the judiciary, but has to work to complete reforms.
An event regarding the anti-bribe legislation was organized on Wednesday on the occasion of the International Day of Fight against Corruption, attended also by the US Ambassador Hans Klemm.
British Ambassador Paul Brummell recalled the promises made by the Romanian leaders upon accession to the European Union in 2007 regarding the fight against corruption, promises related to the reform of the judiciary and on creating an integrity agency.
Ambassador Brummell said Romania has made progress in all these issues, the last monitoring report in January this year confirming confidence in reforms is growing and needs to be maintained. He added there is still work to be done to complete the reforms.
He approached the issue of the global phenomenon of corruption, saying that Romanians have the impression Romania is the only corrupt country. Brummell said corruption is a global problem and no country is immune to it, including the UK or the US. The UK envoy added the most affected by corruption are the poor. Corruption steals from us 5% of the global GDP, he said.
In his turn, US Ambassador Hans Klemm praised Romania’s fight against corruption. Klemm congratulated the courageous decision of Romanian leaders to strengthen the institutions meant to carry out investigations, in order to indict and condemn those who have stolen from state resources for personal interests.
“In recent years the success of the efforts launched to fight corruption, particularly in the area of prosecution, criminal prosecution, has been remarkably successful. And I use that term “remarkably” deliberately because I think due credit should be given to the sometimes brave decision of Romanian leaders to set up strong institutions able to investigate, indict, prosecute and then try those Romanians who have stolen from public resources for private gain. In addition Romania has taken efforts to ensure that its judiciary has the independence necessary, as well as the resources necessary, to be able to adequately try those individuals brought before a Romanian court on charges of corruption. The record of the National Directorate for Anticorruption, the record that Romanian courts had over the past several years has been quite successful, indeed to the extent that Romania is becoming to be recognized internationally and particularly in this region of Europe as the pace setter for its judicial prosecutorial fight against corruption,” the US Ambassador said.
“The United States will continue to be a strong voice in support of Romanian efforts to fight corruption. We will continue to support what needs to be done in the full spectrum of the fight against corruption. It is very important to have the judicial independence and the prosecutorial wherewithal to fight corruption, but there is surely more that can be done to immunize the society from the scourge of corruption,” Ambassador Klemm concluded, according to a US Embassy release.