Debates on the criminal codes

The media expects the political atmosphere in Bucharest to hit up again on May 2, when the debates on amending the criminal codes begin in a special parliamentary committee for the justice laws

Bogdan Matei, 20.04.2018, 13:09

The stated goal of this special parliamentary committee is to harmonise the provisions of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code with rulings of the Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights and the relevant European Directive. The amendments proposed by MPs include setting a 6-month deadline for a person who has given bribe to benefit from clemency if he or she reports the fact to the police.

In the case of acts of corruption and peddling in influence, the provision is introduced that public officials are penalised only if they also acted in the case. Reducing the time inmates have to serve before receiving parole from two thirds of their sentence to a half and even a third for elderly inmates, decriminalising negligence at work and not enforcing extended confiscation for goods acquired before 2012 are some of the most controversial proposals on the committee’s agenda.

Former justice minister and opposition Liberal MP Catalin Predoiu says the amendments sought by the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats would lead to an exaggerated relaxation of criminal policy.

Catalin Predoiu: “I’m thinking of a number of articles that can encourage crime, the article on peddling in influence and that on abuse of office. It’s also difficult to miss the few articles that are in effect made to suit ongoing criminal cases.”

In response, the chair of the special legal committee, the Social Democrat MP Florin Iordache, himself a former minister, says no law is made to order and that the final version of the codes will be the result of transparent debates: “We have come up with proposals. These proposals, which are now subject to public input, will undoubtedly be amended, through the effort and proposals of both professional associations and the law universities in the most important cities in Romania.”

President Klaus Iohannis did not seem too convinced by the arguments presented by the leftist majority and has also criticised the proposed amendments to the criminal codes: “Some of these changes are indeed necessary, because we need to modernise the legal system in some respects, to harmonise the legislation with rulings of the Constitutional Court and in some areas even with the European legislation. Other proposals, however, are completely unacceptable; it is inadmissible for some amendments to be made especially so as to benefit a number of persons who are at the moment holding decision-making positions in Parliament itself.”

The president’s comment is a transparent allusion to the speakers of the two Chambers of Parliament, the Liberal Democrat Calin Popescu Tariceanu and the Social Democrat Liviu Dragnea, who are under investigation by anticorruption prosecutors. Some commentators are also concerned, after the amendments to the justice laws — the status of magistrates, judicial organisation and the functioning of the Superior Council of Magistracy — proposed by the same parliamentary committee have sparked the biggest street protests in Romania’s post-communist history.(Translated by C. Mateescu)