191While Romania has in that regard a freedom to choose the applicable penalties, which may take the form of administrative penalties, criminal penalties or a combination of the two, it must nonetheless ensure, pursuant to Article 325(1) TFEU, that cases of serious fraud and corruption affecting the financial interests of the Union are punishable by criminal penalties that are effective and that act as a deterrent (see, to that effect, judgments of 5 June 2018, Kolev and Others, C‑612/15, EU:C:2018:392, paragraph 54 and the case-law cited, and of 17 January 2019, Dzivev and Others, C‑310/16, EU:C:2019:30, paragraph 27). In addition, with regard to offences of corruption in general, the obligation to provide for criminal penalties that are effective and that act as a deterrent stems, in the case of Romania, from Decision 2006/928, since, as stated in paragraph 189 above, that decision requires Romania to combat corruption and, in particular, high-level corruption effectively, irrespective of any adverse effect on the European Union’s financial interests.
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