The European Commission continues to be concerned about how the Romanian justice system works.
Having joined the European Union in 2007, Romania has a justice system that is still closely monitored by its European partners. Doubting the Bucharest authorities' will and ability to ensure the independence of the judiciary and effectively fight corruption, Brussels imposed, at the moment of Romania's EU accession, the creation of a so-called mechanism of cooperation and verification. Under this mechanism, EU experts assess the country's progress in the field of justice and draw up periodic reports on the progress made and also on the flaws in the system.
On Wednesday, Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said he was confident that the upcoming intermediary report the European Commission is to made public soon would be balanced and objective. Toader also said he discussed the issue with European officials in Brussels, including with the European Commission First Vice-President, Frans Timmermans. Minister Toader discussed with Frans Timmermans about the evolutions covered by the monitoring report and about the objective presentation of the solutions proposed in the new package of laws meant to reform the Romanian judiciary.
The three major laws that govern the functioning of the justice system, that is the status of judges and prosecutors, the Supreme Council of Magistracy and the judicial organisation, are to be amended in keeping with the Constitutional Court's decisions. However, the political opposition and the media suspect that the Government is in fact trying to subtly insert into the new laws stipulations that might sabotage the anti-corruption efforts. The most vehement reactions were sparked by Minister Toader's initial proposal, a proposal dropped eventually by the ruling coalition, that the country's president should no longer be involved in the procedure of appointing the head prosecutors of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Anti-Corruption Directorate and the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism.
Nevertheless, it is the status of the Judicial Inspection Corps that seems to be the main cause for concern for European partners, as Minister Toader pointed out.Initially, the bill supported by the Justice Minister placed the Judicial Inspection Corps from under the umbrella of the Supreme Council of Magistracy to the subordination of the line ministry, fuelling suspicions of political subordination. Faced with the magistrates' disapproval and vehement protests by the opposition and civil society, Minister Toader softened his stance and said that whether under the coordination of the Supreme Council of Magistracy or that of the Justice Ministry, the Judicial Inspection Corps needed what he termed as "a consolidation of its guarantees of independence."
Still unconfirmed officially but reported in the media, the information that Frans Timmermans had recommended Minister Toader that the justice laws should not be revised without the approval of the Venice Commission has already triggered reactions in Romania. The former Social Democratic justice minister Florin Iordache, in his new capacity as president of Parliament's special committee on justice, has said that it is up to the Bucharest Parliament to decide if the approval of the Venice Commission is needed or not.
Useful Links
Copyright © . All rights reserved