The Foreign Investors Council (FIC) joins its peers from the business community in order to express its concern regarding the recent amendments to the Penal Code adopted by the Romanian Government.

FIC has always supported a predictable and transparent legislative process and has appreciated the result of the anticorruption policies in Romania. FIC believes that any government, regardless of electoral cycles, should consider the fight against corruption and structural reforms of the Romanian economy as top priorities.

The rule of law and free markets are necessary ingredients for long term economic growth and the only way to generate prosperity for the society at large.

In this context, FIC considers that the way these decisions were taken could send a negative signal to investors and international institutions and Romania will thus lose the opportunity of attracting new investments. The trust of the investors in Romania as a friendly country for doing business can be easily lost and rebuilding this image will require significant effort and will take up a lot of time and energy.