Romania - July 2023

Revelations of severe abuses at care homes for the elderly and disabled have led to resignations in Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu’s one-month old government, including Minister of Labour and Social Protection, Marius Budai, and Minister for Family Affairs, Gabriela Firea. Prosecutors have indicted 26 suspects for human trafficking, fraud and organized crime in a scheme to illegally collect the benefits of the elderly and infirm, pocketing the funds instead of using them for their care. Acting on reports from NGOs and neighbours who had seen residents begging for food, authorities raided three nursing homes near Bucharest, uncovering inhumane treatment, physical abuse, and deprivation of food and medical care. Subsequent nationwide controls of over 1,000 care homes led to the closure of 13 homes, and the suspension of a further 43. Investigative journalists have shown that the government and state agencies had long been warned about the mistreatment and delayed action.

Sources: DW, RFERL (1), RFERL (2), Euractiv (1), Euractiv (2), Reuters, DIGI24

The Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) found that decisions by the Romanian Constitutional Court which led to the closure of thousands of corruption cases in 2022 violate EU law by creating a “systemic risk of impunity” for fraud. In 2018, the Constitutional Court removed the legal grounds for “interrupting” the statute of limitations, and legislators were slow to pass amendments to fill the gap. As a result, the more lenient interpretation of the law (which allowed the statute of limitations on fraud cases to expire) was applied retroactively for the period 2018-2022. This led to the termination of criminal proceedings pending before Romanian prosecutors and criminal courts, considering that defendants were no longer criminally liable, including for high-level corruption cases. The ECJ decision finds that Romanian national courts should “disapply” the decision to use the more lenient interpretation for this 4-year period of legal ambiguity.

Sources: Reuters, Romania Insider, Mondaq, Digi24 (1), Digi24 (2), Digi24 (3), Romania Journal, Court of Justice of the EU

Parliament approved amendments to the criminal code, pertaining to Article 221 on sexual corruption of minors, which increases the age at which minors can give sexual consent from 14 to 16. The amendments separately criminalise the rape of a minor, punishable by imprisonment of between 7 to 12 years, and expand the scope of sexual crimes against minors, including messaging underage children with the intent to engage in sexual acts. The amendments take into account the vulnerability of the victim, according to economic or social situation. The changes were introduced further to calls from human rights and anti-human trafficking NGOs to raise the sexual consent age limit. In March, 35 domestic and international NGOs called for the European Commission to activate an infringement procedure against Romania for violations of the protection of minors.

Sources: Council of Europe, Romania Insider (1), Romania Insider (2), Euractiv, Digi24 (1), Digi24 (2)