Debate on the Legislative Intervention Developed in the NIAct Project
Transparency International Romania participated on Friday, November 17, 2023, in a debate on the legislative intervention elaborated in the project "NIAct - Updating legislation in the field of integrity and providing support to authorities and declarants in transitioning to digital asset and interest declaration."
The proposed legislative amendments aim to update the integrity legal framework regarding conflicts of interest, incompatibilities, and asset declaration.
Experts from all three partners involved in the project collaborated in drafting the document: the National Integrity Agency, the Ministry of Justice, and Transparency International Romania.
To substantiate the legislative intervention, an analysis of the legislative framework in the field of integrity was also conducted within the NIAct project, reflecting both best practices and inconsistencies, ambiguities, and omissions that reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of the Romanian integrity system, and revising the international recommendations received by Romania within cooperation mechanisms.
Thus, the document aims to address the recommendations formulated by the European Commission in the reports on the progress made by Romania in the context of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) and the Rule of Law Mechanism, highlighting "persistent problems faced by the legislative framework in terms of integrity and the need for stability and clarity, as well as the necessity of establishing a robust and stable framework" (2021 Rule of Law Report - Chapter dedicated to the rule of law situation in Romania).
Moreover, updating the legislation is directly related to the implementation of milestone 431 from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Component 14 - Good Governance, Reform 7 - Evaluation and updating of legislation regarding the integrity framework, which has the achievement indicator of the entry into force of consolidated laws regarding integrity.
The National Integrity Agency implements the NIAct project in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and Transparency International Romania, from February 2022 to December 2023.
The overall objective of the project is to inventory all legislative acts and update the legal framework in the field of integrity, focusing on incompatibilities, conflicts of interest, and unjustified assets, as well as the asset and interest declaration system, based on the needs of stakeholders, substantiated by sociological analyses and research.
Project co-financed by the European Social Fund through the Operational Programme for Administrative Capacity 2014 - 2020!