On Monday, the Romanian Government passed an
\nemergency ordinance amending the justice laws, which have been the topic of
\nfierce debates for some time. Applauded by some and contested by others, the
\namendments have been validated by the Constitutional Court, as the Prime
\nMinister Viorica Dancila announced in the latest government meeting, also
\nstressing that the changes will ensure a better functioning of the justice
\nsystem, for the benefit of the Romanian citizens. In turn, the Justice Minister
\nTudorel Toader has stated that passing this ordinance was necessary in order to
\nincorporate some of the recommendations made by the Venice Commission and some
\nof the requests made by the Superior Council of Magistracy. The minister has emphasized
\nsome of the changes, such as the provision according to which, in order to hold
\na leadership position within the General Prosecutor’s Office, the National
\nAnticorruption Directorate (DNA) and the Directorate for Investigating Organized
\nCrime and Terrorism (DIICOT), prosecutors will need to prove 15 years of
\nseniority, instead of 8 as before. Interviews for these positions will be
\nrecorded, archived and available to all those interested in watching them.
\nAlso, the prosecutors who want to work with the National Anticorruption
\nDirectorate or DIICOT will have to have 10 years of seniority. The provision
\nregarding the early retirement of magistrates after 20 years of seniority will
\nbe applied after December 31st, 2019, in order to avoid shortage of
\nstaff, which is one of the concerns voiced by the Venice Commission. Minister
\nToader explained:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In order to strike the balance between
\nthe desire of some of the magistrates to retire immediately after 20 years of
\nwork, the ruling of the Constitutional Court and the recommendations made by
\nthe Venice Commission, which believes that this would create staff shortage, we
\nhave decided to postpone the implementation of this provision up until the end
\nof 2019. In the meantime we will see how the system works.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The president of the opposition National Liberal
\nParty Ludovic Orban has stated, however, that out of the nine recommendations
\nmade by the Venice Commission, the Government has only complied with two and
\nthat the current ruling coalition ignores all the messages conveyed at European
\nlevel. Ludovic Orban:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The National Liberal Party firmly blames
\nthe Government for continuing to mock the independence of the judiciary, the
\ncitizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms and the cooperation with the European
\nCommission and other European institutions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In turn, Romania’s Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar
\nhas stated that the changes brought to the justice laws were done hastily, thus
\naffecting the solving of important cases:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Staff from several prosecutor offices
\nhave been mobilized and posted to solve big and complex cases. In this new
\nsituation, the staff working on these cases will be dismantled.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to Augustin Lazar, unless these so-called
\n‘big cases’ are solved, Romania might have to pay large amounts of money
\nfollowing rulings by the European Court of Human Rights. <\/p>\n
(Translated by M. Ignatescu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Romanian Government has passed an emergency decree to amend the justice laws<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":75414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[31800,31550,39055,32472,30168,31676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-79145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-augustin-lazar","tag-emergency-decree","tag-independence-of-the-judiciary","tag-justice-laws","tag-ludovic-orban","tag-tudorel-toader"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n