Good afternoon. We adopted the draft law on strengthening the integrity in the exercise of public offices. Why this draft law? It is the result of the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the law regarding the functioning of the National Integrity Agency. Through this draft law, the Government seeks and achieves the following objectives:
1. Continuation of ANI activity;
2. Further declaration by officials in Romania, of their wealth under the form proposed by law - and we will insist on it;
3. Serving of public interest and Romania’s interest, interest pertaining to the existence in Romania of an authority to check the dignitaries’ wealth. I mention that Romania, through the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism on Justice, is obliged to control the wealth of officials - obviously, in accordance with the Constitution of Romania - so that there is full transparency of how one dignitary acquires wealth during duty performance, by making a comparison between what he has at start of mandate and what he has at the end of it. The Government considers that if you opted for public office, you should prove full transparency as regards the assets that you acquire. You have the option to remain in the private sphere and then you are not obliged to fill in the declaration of wealth.
But since you opted for public office, you have the obligation, in relation to citizens, to make clear how you have acquired wealth and that you have to explain if necessary. From this point of view, taking into account the Constitutional Court decision, I shall briefly refer to two elements: first, to comply with the Constitutional Court’s decision regarding the fact that publication of, in the wealth declaration, of some data would affect the right to privacy and the confidentiality of data, we practically establish two types of wealth declaration, as called for by law, declaration of assets: a declaration of wealth, which has a public character, and a statement of wealth, which has confidential character and is subject to further review by ANI.

With respect to the declaration of wealth which has a public character. Basically, from what officials say at present, there are removed only those provisions which concern the exact address of your home or the bank where your accounts are. But the dignitary is still obliged to say how many apartments has, how many houses he owns, their tax value, without indicating the exact address. Or, in case of bank accounts, the dignitary is still obliged to declare bank account, the bank account number and value, without naming exactly the bank using the account or the bank that has opened the account. But still, the dignitary is obliged to declare the number of accounts, their value, for a comparison to be made in a transparent and public way, between what dignitary has at the start of his mandate, during the mandate and at the end of his term in office.
The current declaration that he fills in and which, at present, includes accurate data, the name of the bank holding the account, the address of the home bought or inherited, these statements go to ANI in a confidential regime and are further investigated by the National Agency of Integrity.
In other words, in June, when according to current law, dignitaries will update their wealth declarations, practically; they will fill in this form of public statement as required by the new regulations and also the declaration of assets or wealth, according to the new law, that goes further to be checked by ANI. This is submitted to the responsible person of the institution, person who is required to submit the assets declaration, wealth declaration to the National Agency of Integrity.
So in other words, we observe what the Constitutional Court says with respect to observance of the privacy rules without giving precise data on the identification of accounts or real estate, but while we observe a major public demand, namely that dignitary to able to make control or be able to explain the fact that he has acquired the wealth in one way or another in relation to what the public opinion expects from an official.
The second major amendment refers to the fact that the report of the National Integrity Agency will be sent to the National Tax Administration Agency, (ANAF), if there are goods that have not been taxed, or to Prosecutor’s Office, that in turn, decide accordingly to notify the court, the Prosecutor’s Office having the obligation to analyze such requests ANI puts forward. In this way, we meet the Constitutional Court’s demands by which ANI is not considered a judicial body with the meaning of judiciary power, as the Constitutional Court stated in the decision it ruled.
Other technical amendments are made for the Agency to be operational and functional, from the perspective of some dysfunctions noticed over time. And we hope that the draft law will be adopted urgently, as soon as possible by Parliament so as to ensure continuity in ANI’s activity.
This was why I convened this special meeting of the Government, having this point on the agenda, which aims at National Integrity Agency too. Again, given the importance of ANI for both Romanians and the need to be transparent to the public, but also in relation to European requirements, we as Government, we must do our best that the citizens of Romania to be treated as full citizens of European Union and for there no longer to be any verification and cooperation mechanism for justice by which, to prevent the Romanian citizens when in Europe, to have equal rights with other EU citizens. And from this standpoint, ANI is important, the control of officials’ assets should go further on, transparency be enforced, and the control of acquired assets be ensured through mechanisms and procedures provided by the Constitution and by law. Thank you and I invite Mr. Predoiu to give you details on other elements of this draft law. Thank you.