<\/p>\n
The Constitutional Court of Romania convenes on February 11 to examine the Law on magistrates’ pensions, which increases their retirement age and reduces the amount of pensions that prosecutors and judges should receive.<\/p>\n
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The Court has already postponed this case 3 times, officially because of lack of quorum or incomplete documentation. Four judges, all nominated by the Social Democratic Party, were absent or left successive sessions. Each time, official clarifications were made public, but those who in the past accused all or some of the Court members of trying certain cases in light of their own interests or the interests of certain political players, this time did not hesitate to accuse the Court of deliberately obstructing a sensitive reform for the judicial system.<\/p>\n
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In this context, the Deputy Raluca Turcan announced that together with her fellow Liberal Senator Daniel Fenechiu she had tabled a bill to amend and supplement the Law on the organisation and functioning of the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe draft law can be completed in parliamentary debates. It is a starting point for discussing the credibility of the Constitutional Court,\u201d Turcan posted on Facebook. According to her, in recent years the Constitutional Court has lost credibility because of suspicions of conflict of interest, unjustified postponements or repeated absences and boycotts of major rulings.<\/p>\n
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The main measures introduced by the new legislation include the obligation of Constitutional Court judges to attend plenary sessions, so that boycotting can no longer be an option; financial penalties for judges who are absent from the Court\u2019s plenary sessions without justification of 10% of their gross income for each absence, except for medical situations, fortuitous events or force majeure; the possible revocation by Parliament or the President of Romania of judges in situations of incompatibility, who are absent from Court plenary sessions without justification at least three times in a row or who are unable to exercise their duties for more than 90 days.<\/p>\n
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Raluca Turcan made a point of stating that none of the proposed measures affects the independence of Constitutional Court judges or their irremovability during their term. The law, the Liberal MP argues, only introduces minimal standards of conduct and responsibility in one of the most important institutions.<\/p>\n
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In fact, the Constitutional Court played a key role in preventing the access to the country\u2019s presidency of a toxic character: the pro-Russian extremist C\u0103lin Georgescu. As Raluca Turcan put it, it is important for the Romanians’ trust in public institutions that a strategy of political boycott and trial delays is no longer employed by the Constitutional Court of Romania. (AMP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Constitutional Court of Romania convenes on February 11 to examine the Law on magistrates’ pensions, which increases their retirement age and reduces the amount of pensions that prosecutors and judges should receive. The Court has already postponed this case 3 times, officially because of lack of quorum or incomplete documentation. Four judges, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":909979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[30041,32909,32766,30162,37481],"coauthors":[113257],"class_list":["post-978471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-constitutional-court","tag-judges","tag-magistrates","tag-reform","tag-retirement"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n