Romanian Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar on Wednesday warned over the amendments operated on the Criminal Code in Parliament, in the view of decriminalizing the conflict of interest offense. Lazar said that the decriminalization would close down a quarter of the Prosecutor’s Office’s criminal files.
The amendments are to be enforced after the Constitutional Court had overruled the appeal filed by the opposition parties. The only solution to delay the enforcement is for President Iohannis to ask the Parliament to re-examine the amendments operated on articles 301 and 308 in the Criminal Code.
In a post on the Public Ministry’s Facebook account, Romania’s Prosecutor General says the amendments are not opportune and not compliant with the facts in the Romanian society.
“Incrimination of the conflict of interest is relatively new in the Romanian legislation, based on the European and international norms, such as the Recommendation no 10 of the Ministers Council of the Council of Europe on the conduct codes for the public servants, the Convention of the Council of Europe dating back in 1999 and the United Nations Convention against corruption from 2003,” Lazar argued.
He warned that out in 594 ongoing criminal files on conflict of interest 128 will be closed after the decriminalization of the offense.
The Prosecutor General also pointed out that other European countries are drastically sanctioning the conflict of interest, punishing it with prison time or with criminal fines mounting up to EUR 200,000.
The draft law amending the Criminal Code initiated by PSD, UDMR and ALDE, was tacitly adopted by the Senate, with consistent amendments operated by the Chamber of Deputies in April. The draft was vetoed by Ciolos and Grindeanu cabinets.
Later on, USR, PNL and PMP lawmakers have challenged it to the Constitutional Court but the Court denied the appeal on June 14.