Anti‑Corruption and Integrity Outlook 2026: Romania
Table of contents
The National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2021-2025 (NAS) and the National Anti-Fraud Strategy were adopted by the Government of Romania in 2021 and 2023 respectively. The NAS aims at strengthening the identification and management of corruption risks to guarantee efficiency in the public sector and supporting economic development. Four pillars underpin this mission: 1) political will; 2) integrity in public institutions; 3) prioritise the public interest; and 4) transparency. The NAFS is focused on the protection of the European Union (EU) financial interests in Romanian public organisations.
The National Anticorruption Directorate, a body within the Ministry of Justice, monitors the implementation of the NAS. The General Secretariat of the Government is the central government function overseeing lobbying, and the National Integrity Agency monitors the submission of conflict-of-interest declarations. Romania also has an entity responsible for political finance, the Permanent Electoral Authority, and for open data policy, the Authority for the Digitisation of Romania.
The Superior Council of Magistracy is responsible for the oversight of the selection and dismissal procedures of judges and prosecutors, and for the application of disciplinary sanctions. The National Agency of Civil Servants is responsible for the development of policies and strategies regarding the management of civil servants.
Note: 2025 and 2020 data or latest year available.
Source: OECD Public Integrity Indicators Database (data extracted on 7 March 2026).
Data on where Romania integrity system is strongest and could be most improved can be found at the link below:
Note: 2025 data or latest year available.
Source: OECD Public Integrity Indicators Database (data extracted on 7 March 2026).
Romania fulfils 67% of criteria on the quality of strategic framework and 67% on implementation of the strategy in practice, compared to the OECD averages of 38% and 32%, respectively.
The National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2021-2025 (NAS) and the National-Anti-Fraud Strategy 2023-2027 contain a situation analysis, including an identification of existing public integrity risks and references to international legal instruments on anti-corruption and public integrity. Both the NAS and NAFS have strategic objectives in fields including human resource management, public procurement and the identification of public integrity risks within the public administration. The implementation of these strategies is supported by action plans that identify a central co-ordination function and lead organisations for each action. However, only the NAS contains references to administrative data and staff surveys.
Monitoring reports are available only for the action plan supporting the NAS, and the evaluation report for the NAS 2016-2020 was prepared by the OECD. As of the 2023 monitoring report, Romania had implemented 41% of planned actions for the NAS. Although the NAS underwent extended public consultations processes, non-state actors were not consulted on the NAFS. Civil society is also not engaged in the monitoring of the strategies.
Note: 2025 data or latest year available.
Source: OECD Public Integrity Indicators Database (data extracted on 7 March 2026).
Romania fulfils 60% of criteria on regulations, and 56% of criteria in practice, compared to the OECD average of 43% and 38%, respectively.
Recent reforms have strengthened the regulatory framework on lobbying and influence, including the revolving door. Law 49/2025 defines lobbying as activities “that may influence the taking of a decision, representing a framework of collaboration complementary to and prior to the legal procedure of decisional transparency”, and lists which actors are defined as lobbyists.
The General Secretariat of Government oversees the transparency of lobbying activities. A code of conduct that regulates interactions between public officials and lobbyists has been developed and is set to be approved in 2026. The lobbying register is undergoing updates and is publicly available, and 2026 updates to the register will allow to sort information by lobbyist’s name, company/organisation, domain of intervention, and piece of legislation targeted.
The revolving door is regulated through Law 189/2025, which establishes a mandatory 12-month cooling-off period for both public officials and lobbyists. Sanctions exist but can only be imposed on members of the legislative.
Note: 2025 data or latest year available.
Source: OECD Public Integrity Indicators Database (data extracted on 7 March 2026).
Romania fulfils 100% of regulatory safeguards in place, and fulfils 33% of criteria on practice, compared to the OECD average of 80% and 45%, respectively.
Romania has a comprehensive set of regulations on conflict of interest, fully meeting OECD regulatory criteria. This framework includes mandatory submission of interest declarations for all senior public officials, ministers, members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, top civil servants and judges of the High Judicial Council, the Court of Cassation and the Constitutional Court. A decision by the Romanian Constitutional Court on the 29 May 2025 has led to an ongoing review by the Ministry of Justice of the obligation for public servants to disclose asset and interest declarations. The National Integrity Agency monitors compliance with conflict-of-interest regulations and issues recommendations for the resolution of conflicts of interest, as well as sanctions for non-compliance with regulations.
However, there is insufficient data on the submission rate of interest declarations for public officials. Additionally, there is no risk-based approach to verifying interest declarations, and data is not available on the number of declarations verified.
Note: 2025 data or latest year available.
Source: OECD Public Integrity Indicators Database (data extracted on 7 March 2026).
Romania fulfils 80% of criteria on regulations, and 43% of criteria on practice, compared to the OECD average of 76% and 58%, respectively.
Law 334/2006 bans a wide array of donations, including from foreign actors and state-owned enterprises, though anonymous contributions up to the equivalent of 10 minimum monthly salaries are permitted. There are also ceilings on personal contributions to electoral campaigns, and parties must submit annual and electoral financial reports. Parties’ annual and electoral financial reports, as well as sanctions issued by the Permanent Electoral Authority, which oversees political financing activities, are publicly available.
However, the Permanent Electoral Authority lacks full autonomy in human resource management and does not have budgetary accountability directly to Parliament. Compliance with reporting deadlines could be further improved, as not all parties represented in Parliament have submitted their annual and electoral accounts by the deadline established in the regulatory framework.
Note: 2025 data or latest year available.
Source: OECD Public Integrity Indicators Database (data extracted on 7 March 2026).
Romania fulfils 67% of criteria related to regulations and 62% related to practice, compared to the OECD average of 72% and 62%, respectively.
Romania has a generally comprehensive access to information law, but the law does not specify that all government data are “open by default”. There is a central government unit for open data policy, the Authority for Digitisation of Romania, but there is no supervisory body responsible for issues concerning access to information. The General Secretariat of the Government develops open government policies, but there is no body with the mandate to conduct inspections and sanction public organisations for noncompliance of access to information regulations.
In practice, Romania proactively publishes several key integrity-related datasets, including agendas and minutes of Government sessions, salaries and interest declarations of top officials, consolidated versions of all primary laws, data on public tenders, the business and land registries, and asset and interest declarations. However, minister’s agendas are not consistently disclosed in the websites of individual ministers.
There is no appeal body for access to information requests, as no entity can conduct inspections on other public organisations and sanction non-compliance. While agendas and minutes of government sessions are published, ministers’ agendas are not yet publicly available online.
Note: 2025 data or latest year available.
Source: OECD Public Integrity Indicators Database (data extracted on 7 March 2026).
Romania fulfils 94% of criteria on judicial integrity regulations and 72% on practice, compared to the OECD average of 66% and 45%, respectively.
Law no. 303/2022 establishes that judges are guaranteed tenure until mandatory retirement age, expiry of their term or dismissal from office. A list of objective grounds for dismissal is included in the legislation; these grounds range from resignation to dismissal as a disciplinary sanction.
The Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) is responsible for conducting eligibility checks, competitive examinations, interviews and advising the President on appointments. The body includes 19 members appointed by non-political entities or the parliament, except for the Minister of Justice. The latter does not participate in CSM decisions on selection, appointment and disciplinary procedures in accordance with Article 28 of Law no. 303/2022. Candidates have the right to appeal decisions.
Standards of conduct are available online, and Law No.161/2003 outlines situations that can lead to conflicts of interest. Law no. 176/2010 establishes that members of the highest bodies of the judiciary and national judges are obliged to submit interest declarations. There is no data on the submission rates of interest declarations for both national judges and members of the highest bodies of the judiciary.
Law 361/2022 establishes internal reporting channels for members of the judiciary and protects whistleblowers against retaliation. However, there is no publicly available portal that provides information on whistleblowers’ rights, nor is there training on confidentiality for staff handling reports in courts.
Note: 2025 data or latest year available.
Source: OECD Public Integrity Indicators Database (data extracted on 7 March 2026).
Romania fulfils 83% of criteria on prosecutorial integrity regulations and 63% on practice, compared to the OECD average of 66% and 52%, respectively.
Law No. 303/2022 requires that interviews, amongst other objective criteria, are required for the selection of prosectors. Promotion for senior prosecutors includes interviews, but for other managerial positions, such measures are optional. Law No. 303/2022 includes the right for candidates to appeal appointment decisions and promotion decisions, and sets objective grounds for the dismissal of prosecutors. The Criminal Procedure Code allows appeals of prosecutors decisions by the parties or a senior prosecutor.
The Code of Ethics for Judges and Prosecutors is applicable to all prosecutors. Law No. 303/2022 defines the circumstances and relationships that can lead to conflict-of-interest situations for prosecutors, and sets out recusal measures. Members of the highest prosecutorial authorities are obliged to submit interest declarations upon taking up a position and annually thereafter.
Internal reporting channels exist for public prosecutors’ offices and whistleblowers reporting prosecutorial misconduct are protected from retaliation under Law No. 303/2022. Information on whistleblower rights, procedures for reporting misconduct, and contact details are not currently centralised, but a portal is under development. Staff handling reports in public prosecutors’ offices do not have mandatory training on confidentiality.
Note: 2025 data or latest year available.
Source: OECD Public Integrity Indicators Database (data extracted on 7 March 2026).
Romania fulfils 92% of criteria on the disciplinary system for civil servants on regulations and 0% on practice, compared to an OECD average of 66% and 22% respectively.
The Administrative Code establishes conditions for disciplinary liability and the list of disciplinary offences and sanctions. Sanctions range from a written reprimand to dismissal from public office and are applied depending on the severity and the circumstances of the offence. Disciplinary decisions can be appealed to the administrative court and staff in charge of investigating are obliged to inform the judiciary or law enforcement if a disciplinary case involves criminal behaviour.
In practice, there is no training program on how to conduct disciplinary investigations for responsible staff. While there is a legal requirement for central government authorities to report on the implementation of disciplinary proceedings through an online system, cases are not managed through an electronic case management system. Additionally, annual reports include data on initiated, concluded and appealed disciplinary procedures, but data is not currently in a user-friendly format that allows filtering and searching.
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The full book is available in English: OECD (2026), Anti-Corruption and Integrity Outlook 2026: Harnessing the Integrity Advantage, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/16708b78-en.
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