The event addressed issues related to anti-bribery and anti-money laundering systems and controls, current issues in Romanian regulatory and enforcement law. The participants had the opportunity to hear insights shared by experts and lawyers specialising in criminal law, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the Romanian National Office for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering.

As a speaker, Mihai Mareș shared with the audience issues related to the prosecution of individuals for economic-financial crimes – more specifically the application in national court practice of the judgment delivered by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on 21 October 2021 in the ZX case (C-282/20).

CJEU judgment: Art. 6(6) (3) – Directive 2012/13/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012 on the right to information in criminal proceedings: The Member States shall ensure that, at the latest when the substance of the charge is presented to the court, detailed information is given on the charge, including the nature and legal classification of the offence and the form of participation of the accused person.

The interpretation of the CJEU decision:

• The European rules preclude national legislation which does not provide for a procedural procedure which allows the vagueness and lacunae in the content of the indictment to be remedied after the preliminary hearing in a criminal case.
• The referring court is obliged to give, as far as possible, a consistent interpretation of the national law on the amendment of the indictment which allows the prosecutor to remedy ambiguities and lacunae in the content of the indictment at the trial;
• If it considers that such a consistent interpretation is not possible, the court must leave unapplied the national provision prohibiting the stay of proceedings and the referral of the case to the prosecutor for a new indictment.

Mihai Mareș detailed aspects such as the conditions of applicability of the CJEU judgment in cases pending before Romanian courts and the ways in which such a remedy can be achieved, according to the national legislation.