EC draft anti-corruption directive provides for abuse of functions without criminal threshold (minister)

Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu on Wednesday said that the draft anti-corruption directive published by the European Commission regulates the crime of abuse of functions without a value threshold for criminalisation and criminal liability.

In a press statement released on Wednesday, the Justice Ministry said that it learned about the publication by the European Commission of an anti-corruption legislative package approved by the College of Commissioners, Agerpres informs.

"This anti-corruption legislative package, published by the European Commission, is a new signal regarding the topicality of the fight against corruption within the European design, and it must be so at the level of each member state, therefore also in Romania. I am glad to note that our national legislation is in many aspects already harmonised with the draft directive, including regarding the crime of abuse of functions, so hotly debated in Romania, which the directive regulates without a value threshold for criminalistion and criminal liability," Predoiu is quoted as saying in the press statement.

According to Predoiu, strengthening anti-corruption legislation at the national level in each member state has to be accompanied by good judicial co-operation among the European Union member states and the ad literam observance of the principle of mutual recognition of final decisions in criminal matters.

"There are still things to be done in this regard in other EU member states, from my point of view. It is counterproductive to frustrate the effort to fight corruption within the EU member states by ignoring the principle of recognition of final decisions in criminal matters in other [European] states. It is a well-known fact that Romania encountered difficulties in the past in some cases of people convicted criminally in Romania who fled from justice to Italy and Greece. The Ministry of Justice has activated all the diplomatic channels at its disposal in this regard since 2020 and will keep this subject on the agenda of bilateral discussions at the level of the European Commission until the closing of all the legal loopholes in the European legislation and the repatriation of all persons who evade justice, in order to execute the final decisions of the courts in Romania. I know that it is a painstaking job, in which a lot of diplomatic and political perseverance is needed, but there is, in my view, no other way and no other acceptable result, and that is why the Ministry of Justice will persevere with these steps until the problems are solved," said Predoiu.

According to the press statement, the directive contains a series of key provisions for strengthening the means of criminal law to combat corruption in public and private offices.

"The directive provides for a modern regulation of the crime of abuse of position, consistent with the definition of the crime of abuse of functions or position in the UN Convention Against Corruption, already accepted in domestic law under Law 365/2004. Within the draft anti-corruption directive, the abuse of position does not contain a value threshold for criminalisation and criminal liability."