Joint Statement of President Juncker and First Vice-President Timmermans on the fight against corruption in Romania

"The fight against corruption needs to be advanced, not undone. We are following the latest developments in Romania with great concern.

The irreversibility of the progress achieved in the fight against corruption is essential for the Commission to assess whether at some point monitoring under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) could be phased out.

Our CVM Report, published last week, acknowledged the track record achieved so far by prosecutors and judges in Romania in addressing high-level corruption. At the same time, it made clear that any steps which undermine this progress, or have the effect of weakening or shrinking the scope of corruption as an offence, would have an impact on any future assessments.

The Commission i warns against backtracking and will look thoroughly at the emergency ordinance on the Criminal Code and the Law on Pardons in this light."

STATEMENT/17/195