Romania strengthens legal framework to combat corruption involving foreign public officials

The recent amendment to Law No. 319/2024 marks an important step in strengthening the Romanian legal framework for combating corruption involving foreign public officials. Romania is not only reinforcing its international commitments under the OECD but also redefining how local companies must organise their internal anti-bribery policies. The new regulations introduce stricter penalties and allow legal entities to benefit from mitigating circumstances by implementing effective compliance programmes, emphasising the importance of an integrated framework for corporate governance and integrity.

Romania’s path to European Union integration has been lengthy and demanding. Beginning in the early 1990s, following its EU membership application in 1995, the country embarked on a comprehensive process of modernising its institutions, which had remained rooted in the pre-December era.

Between 2000 and 2004, all the chapters necessary for Romania’s accession to the EU were debated and closed. Romania officially submitted its application to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on 28 April 2004. In the years that followed, Romania participated as an observer or member in several OECD committees and working groups and adopted approximately 50 of the Organisation’s 267 legal instruments.

Building on this early involvement, Romania has maintained an active dialogue with the OECD to advance its accession process.

Romania’s engagement with the OECD is built on practical dialogue, aimed at evaluating both its readiness and ability to adopt OECD standards and practices, while also reviewing and refining them. The ultimate goal is for Romania to achieve full alignment with the Organisation’s legislation, policies and practices by the time it becomes a member.

After January 2022, Romania went through an extensive process of preparing and finalising the conditions necessary for joining the Organisation. Romania’s adherence to one of the most important multilateral anti-corruption instruments, the “Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions” and obtaining membership in the OECD Anti-Bribery Working Group, both completed in 2023, represented a particularly important step.

It is worth noting that, during its meeting on 8 October 2025, the Chamber of Deputies, acting as the decision-making authority, adopted a law amending and supplementing Law No. 319/2024 on measures for implementing the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (Paris, 21 November 1997). The law also introduces changes to Law No. 302/2004 on international judicial cooperation in criminal matters. These amendments were published in Official Gazette No. 959 on 16 October 2025.

The offence is defined as: ‘the act of a person who, directly or indirectly, promises, offers or gives to a foreign public official, for themselves or for another person, money or other benefits to which they are not entitled, in connection with the performance, non-performance, expediting or delaying of an act that falls within the official duties of that foreign public official or in connection with the performance of an act contrary to those duties or in connection with any other improper use of his or her position, if the act is such as to procure for that person or any other person money or other benefits or to maintain such advantages in connection with the conduct of international economic operations. This constitutes an offence and is punishable by imprisonment of between 2 and 7 years.’

The provisions of paragraph two (2) stipulate that ‘in the case of the offence referred to in paragraph (1), if the court also imposes a fine in addition to the prison sentence, under the conditions of Article 62 of Law No. 286/2009 on the Criminal Code, as subsequently amended and supplemented, by way of derogation from the provisions of Article 61 (2) of the same law, the amount corresponding to a one day-fine for a natural person shall be between RON 500 and RON 10,000’.

At the same time, in paragraph three (3), it is provided that in the case of the offence referred to in paragraph (1), the amount corresponding to a one day’s fine for a legal person is between RON 3,000 and RON 300,000.

One of the most important aspects of these amendments is the introduction of the provisions of Article 31, according to which the following may constitute mitigating circumstances: ‘(a) the adoption and application by the legal person that committed the offence referred to in Article 3(1) of an effective programme of organisation, management and internal control designed to prevent the commission of that offence, if that programme was adopted and applied at the time of the commission of the offence’.

As a result of the adoption of the amendments to Law No. 319/2004, the scope of confiscation has been extended to cover not only the initial bribe (money or property) but also money and property obtained indirectly through the commission of the offence, as well as any income derived from the exploitation of these assets.

The new legislative amendments bring significantly increased penalties for legal persons, ranging from approximately EUR 18,000 to EUR 36 million, which represents a substantial increase compared to the provisions of the Romanian Criminal Code (where this amount varies from approximately EUR 600 to a maximum of approximately EUR 600,000).

An important new aspect of this law is the expanded jurisdiction of the Romanian National Anti-Corruption Directorate, which will now investigate certain related offences – such as money laundering, forgery of official documents, intellectual forgery, forgery of private documents, use of forgeries and tax evasion – when these are connected to the corruption of foreign public officials, as defined in Article 3 of Law No. 319/2024. Additionally, Article 5, adopted on 8 October of this year, introduces provisions for protecting whistleblowers, in line with Law No. 361/2022, covering individuals who report or notify criminal prosecution authorities about acts of corruption involving foreign public officials.

All such cases must be reported to the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, which is expected to play a pivotal role in Romania’s legal framework once the country becomes a full OECD member. The amendments adopted by the Chamber of Deputies introduce several derogations from the Criminal Code and criminal procedure. Among these, in addition to changes regarding the fines applicable to natural and legal persons, a significant derogation concerns Article 148(9), second sentence, of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which regulates the use of undercover investigators and collaborators with real identities. Previously, the extension of such measures required duly justified reasons and compliance with the conditions set out in Article 148(9). Under the new provisions, however, the use of undercover investigators can now be extended for up to 12 months without any conditions.

Thus, while under the previous provisions the duration of the use of such investigators could be extended for duly justified reasons, subject to the conditions set out in Article 148(1), with each extension not exceeding 60 days, the total duration of the measure may now exceed one year. In view of the legislative changes made, it is clear that Romania is taking important steps to align itself with OECD standards in the fight against corruption.

These legislative changes demonstrate Romania’s commitment to full alignment with OECD standards in combating corruption. The new provisions not only impose stricter penalties for corruption – particularly for legal entities – but also broaden the scope of the law and strengthen confiscation measures.