Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the government of Romania on tackling corruption in the business sector of that country.

The UK closely monitors the implementation of Romania’s National Anticorruption Strategy which covers tackling corruption in the business sector. The UK has provided financial assistance to the Centre for Legal Resources to research ethics and compliance in the Romanian business sector, some of the results of which were subsequently included in Romania’s National Anticorruption Strategy.

In April 2015 the British and American Chambers of Commerce in Romania and the Romanian Ministry of Justice organised a conference on business integrity, bringing together Government, businesses, non-governmental organisations and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development representatives to discuss the most effective ways to improve integrity of businesses in Romania.

During his visit to Romania in January 2015, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), met President Klaus Iohannis and set out the important work Romania needed to take on tackling corruption, improving predictability of legislation and the positive impact this would have on Romania’s business environment.