The institutions dealing with corruption combating must make consistent changes and explain them. The European Union offers Moldova significant budget support for reforming the justice sector and in a period will ask for reports on how the provided assistance was managed, said Cristian Ghinea, director of the Romanian Center for European Policies, IPN reports.

In a conference centering on Moldova’s integration into the EU, Cristian Ghinea said the problem of corruption will remain if judges continue to only impose fines on those involved in corruption schemes, when their salaries are raised significantly, and will not sentence them to jail. The government will be unable to reduce the pays of judges in two years, arguing that they didn’t show willingness to fight corruption.

“We will make recommendations to the EU to put pressure on the Supreme Council of Magistrates, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Anticorruption Center directly so that these institutions have to answer for the results achieved in combating corruption. The reformation of the National Anticorruption Center stagnates because everyone was preoccupied with how the institution should look and the main goal of instituting common responsibility wasn’t achieved. There should be institutions that would answer why nobody was condemned of corruption,” said the Center’s director.

According to him, the National Anticorruption Center and the National Integrity Commission will have public support only when they achieve results in the fight against corruption. “I would like to see how much of the €60 million offered by the EU reaches the two institutions. The National Integrity Commission, which must check the property of government officials, has a rather small budget and Parliament refused to increase its budget by €75,000. These institutions should do intense work. Quietness in the anticorruption area is not good,” stated Cristian Ghinea.

He added that it’s mistaken to believe that the EU needs Moldova. The Moldovan government should not have illusions. “Attention is the most expensive resource in Brussels. Everyone must be involved in a competition by which to attract the attention of those from Brussels to certain themes,” said Ghinea.

The first annual Conference of the Moldovan European Integration Debate Forum was organized by the Foreign Policy Association and the German foundation Friedrich Ebert, in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova.