Romania passes law restricting full public disclosure of officials' asset declarations

The Romanian Chamber of Deputies approved a draft law amending the rules on the immunity of public officials, establishing the National Anti‑Corruption Agency (ANI) as an independent administrative body tasked with preventing institutional corruption. The legislation limits the information published in the public electronic register to basic identifiers – name, position, institution, type of declaration and filing dates – while excluding details on real estate, vehicles, bank balances, income, or family members.

A key amendment deletes the requirement to report cash holdings in asset statements, as noted by the Senate’s legal committee: “the modification removed the requirement to disclose cash holdings in asset declarations.” The ANI will store asset and interest declarations for three years after a term ends and will release anonymised statistics annually. The changes affect a wide range of officials, including the president, parliamentarians, ministers, judges and ambassadors.

The law also provides for automatic termination of office within 30 days for officials found to have a confirmed conflict of interest under existing rules.