France will withdraw its candidate
\nfor the position of European Chief Prosecutor and will back the candidacy
\nof Laura Codruta Kovesi. The announcement was made by the Romanian Presidency
\nfollowing phone talks between presidents Klaus Iohannis and Emanuel Macron.
\nAlthough affiliated to rival European parties, Macron promised Iohannis he
\nwould withdraw the candidacy of Jean-Francois Bohnert, who had been backed by
\nthe former Council of the European Union, presided by Romania in the first
\nsemester of 2019. The European Parliament instead supported Kovesi’s candidacy,
\nboth in the last and in the current tenures. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
European Parliament President
\nDavid Sassoli sent a letter to the Council of the European Union, recalling the
\nfull support of MEPs for Romania’s candidate. Under the law, the European chief
\nprosecutor is appointed jointly by the Parliament and the Council of the EU,
\nfor a seven-year term, which cannot be renewed. Having spearheaded the fight
\nagainst corruption for years, but also believed to have instrumented an abusive
\nprosecution system, Kovesi has often been labeled as Romania’s most powerful
\nwoman. Shortly before being sacked last year in June, following a
\nConstitutional Court ruling, Kovesi admitted during a debate venued at the UN
\nheadquarters in New York, that Romania’s greatest challenge remains the
\npreservation of the independence of judges and prosecutors. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There have been
\nrepeated attempts at modifying anticorruption legislation to limit the
\nlegislative instruments used by anticorruption prosecutors or to decriminalize
\ncertain offences. There have been cases where requests to lift the immunity of
\npoliticians charged with corruption were turned down. The whole justice system
\nhas seen attacks by means of fake news or public statements aimed at weakening
\npublic credibility in the system, Kovesi said, claiming the Social-Democratic
\nParty and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in power have tried to rein in
\nthe fight against corruption and subordinate magistrates. Beyond controversies,
\nthe facts speak volumes. In the last five years with Kovesi at its helm, the
\nDirectorate has prosecuted 14 ministers and former ministers and 53 MPs. Of
\nthese, 27 were handed final sentences. During the same period, the Directorate seized over 2.3 million dollars in assets. The recently appointed pro-European
\nPrime Minister in the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, has offered Laura
\nCodruta Kovesi the leadership of the Anti-graft Prosecutor’s Office in Moldova.
\nPundits believe however Kovesi is likely to become the new head of the European
\nProsecutor’s Office, which is set to begin its activity next year. <\/p>\n
(Translated by V. Palcu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi, has now become the top candidate in the race for the position of European Chief Prosecutor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":80860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[34425,29406,34541,29799],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-82558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-council-of-the-eu","tag-european-parliament","tag-european-prosecutor","tag-laura-codruta-kovesi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n