The executive committee board of Social Democratic
\nParty (PSD) has decided the time is right for the articles of the Criminal Code
\nand the Code of Criminal Procedure declared constitutional to be passed by
\nemergency decree. The reason for that decision would be that the law making process
\non the two codes has been too long. PSD leader Liviu Dragnea:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The topic has been discussed by the
\nExecutive Committee at the proposal of a party member. The decision has been
\nsubmitted to the Justice Minister and the Prime Minister. They said they would
\nlook into it and we’ll see what they’ll do. Our colleagues said it is a
\nnever-ending story and there is no reason for the articles declared
\nconstitutional by the Constitutional Court not to be passed by emergency decree.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The articles that were declared unconstitutional will
\nbe submitted to parliamentary debate so as to comply with the Constitution. A
\nnever-ending story, Liviu Dragnea said. A story of challengeable and challenged
\namendments to the justice laws and the criminal legislation that started, as
\npundits note, with the famous Decree 13 adopted in January 2017, shortly after
\nthe current leftist majority had taken office. The decree partially decriminalized
\nthe abuse of office and seemed tailored to favour the PSD leader and other
\npeople prosecuted for similar acts of corruption. Under the protesters’
\npressure, the decree was withdrawn. And now, just like then, the right wing
\nopposition claims there is no emergency for the ordinance to be adopted and
\naccuses PSD of bypassing the Government and Parliament. The National Liberal
\nParty deputy, Ioan Cupsa, believes that such a decision would belittle the whole
\nparliamentary activity. The Save Romania Union deputy, Cristian Seidler,
\nreminds the coalition that in the field of the judiciary, it must take into
\naccount the recommendations of the Constitutional Court and of international
\nexperts. Cristian Seidler:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
After Decree 13, the PSD-ALDE coalition
\nhas no legitimacy to even think of an emergency decree related to criminal laws
\nand codes. The decree should be passed by Parliament and it should entirely
\ncomply with the Constitutional Court’s rulings and the recommendations of the
\nVenice Commission.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In the report on the Mechanism for Cooperation and
\nVerification made public in mid-November, the European Commission called on the
\nRomanian authorities to freeze the enforcement of the amendments to the
\nCriminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure and re-launch the process of
\namending them, while taking into account the need for those codes to comply
\nwith the EU Law and international anti-corruption instruments. In turn, the
\nEuropean Parliament said it was deeply concerned about the reform of the
\njustice and criminal laws in Romania as that might trigger the structural
\nundermining of the independence of the justice system and its capacity to efficiently
\nfight corruption, and might also weaken the rule of law.<\/p>\n
(Translated by A.M. Palcu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The executive committee of the Social Democratic Party wants the amendments to the criminal codes to be passed by emergency decree<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":72978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[31510,31550,29080,33694],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-79927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-criminal-codes","tag-emergency-decree","tag-liviu-dragnea","tag-ruling-coalition"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n