Foreign chambers of commerce in Romania, worried about EO on criminal codes

Today, American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania) expressed, in a press release, its ‘deep disappointment’ regarding the reasoning, adopting procedure, provisions and effects of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) 13/2017 and of the project to amend the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedural Code.

“The lack of transparency in adopting such legislation despite the opinions and recommendations issued by the relevant institutions undermines the confidence in the Government and sends a strong negative wave of mistrust and uncertainty, both internally and externally,” the release reads.

AmCham appreciates that the firm anti-corruption efforts had a major contribution to Romania’s recent development and the country’s rating and attractiveness for investments, and the current decisions cancel the accomplishments of the past years and increases Romania’s country risk.

“It is extremely worrying for the business community and society as a whole, that legislative pieces with such moral, societal and economic implications with immediate and long term effects are adopted by the Government without observing the minimum requirements of transparency in decision-making,” the representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce stated.

In AmCham’s view, the adopted legislation undermines the rule of law and derail from the fundamental principles of transparency, stability and predictability and strays Romania from the European values and standards.

In turn, the German-Romanian Chamber of Commerce (AHK Romania) is concerned that changes to the Criminal Code, recently adopted, will have negative impact on the Romanian-German economic relations.

In German companies’ opinion in Romania, the changes made late on Tuesday call into question new government’s wish to continue without compromise the fight against corruption.

“A limitation of rule of law principles and the risk of corruption recurrence will have clear negative effects on the economic development of the country. These actions send a strong signal of uncertainty among German investors and could negatively influence the strong economic relations between Romania and Germany.
Romania is in danger of losing its positive image, hardly regained in the past year. This is all the more regrettable, as Romania thus weakens its position as a stable and reliable investment location, especially in the sensitive political context globally,” AHK Romania pointed out in a press release.