JusMin Toader: It shouldn't be understood that GRECO writes the law in Romania; it just shows standards

Romania's Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said on Monday that Romanian legislation is not being drafted by Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), which only makes recommendations on standards and trends. 

"These are recommendations. Never in the Romanian language was a recommendation ever mandatory; we are talking about recommendations in the preliminary procedure. We are at the stage where the laws are being discussed and they show us the standards to which we should be headed. You should not picture that some GRECO expert body comes and sets out some solutions, after which Parliament moves quickly to implement them. They provide some recommendations, some directions for the developments in the legislation, and then they will return to see how they have been transposed (...) It should not be understood that GRECO writes the law in Romania. GRECO just points to standards, trends," Toader said. 

He also made remarks on his correspondence of late with GRECO. 

"It was originally said that there is an official statement that says: the recommendations are mandatory. I wrote to GRECO: Give me that statement. It does not exist. There was just correspondence. I know that correspondence but I kept on asking for two things: give me, please, an official GRECO statement - do not read the regulation to me, because I know it, you can read it yourselves. Just release a statement with those exact words; did you tell the media in Romania that the recommendation is mandatory? No, we did not. [We meant] the regulation. We know the regulation and we respect it," said Toader.