April 4, 2019 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 04.04.2019, 19:58
Referendum — The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday announced that the themes which he would submit to the vote at the May 26 referendum, held simultaneously with the EP elections, are related to forbidding amnesty and pardon of corruption crimes and forbidding the government to pass emergency decrees related to criminal offences and punishments, correlated with the right of other authorities to notify the Constitutional Court over such decrees. The Romanian citizens are called to decide whether they want the effects of a person’s convictions to be erased and whether they want to allow the government to continue passing emergency decrees on sensitive issues such as the organization of the judiciary and the criminal legislation, the president added. He again warned the governing coalition not to pass emergency decrees targeting criminal legislation before the citizens can have their say in the referendum. The Social Democratic Party announced it was not opposed to the themes of the referendum on justice while the opposition Liberal Party said the president’s initiative was very good for the society.
European Prosecutor — The investigation of the former chief prosecutor of the National Anti-corruption Directorate in Romania, Laura Codruta Kovesi at this very moment is an obvious obstacle to her candidacy to the position of European chief prosecutor, the European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Vera Jourova, said Thursday, in Bucharest. In Brussels, the negotiators of the EP and of the Council of the EU have not reached a consensus over the appointment of the European chief prosecutor, a position for which Laura Codruta Kovesi is also running. She is backed by the EP while the Council of the EU supports the French Jean-Francois Bohnert. According to regulations in force, the EP and the Council of the EU appoint jointly a European chief prosecutor for a 7-year term which cannot be renewed. On Wednesday, the EC and the EP reiterated their support for Kovesi. After the president of the EP Antonio Tajani asked the Romanian authorities to stop obstructing her candidacy to the European public prosecutor’s office, Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice lifted the judicial restrictions placed on Kovesi last week by the prosecutors of a new special department for the investigation of magistrates as part of a case in which Kovesi is accused of abuse of office, bribe taking and false testimony. The last date scheduled for negotiations between the EP and the Council of the EU is April 10.
Bratislava — The Romanian PM Viorica Dancila is paying an official visit to Slovakia on Friday where she will meet with her counterpart Peter Pellegrini. According to a government communiqué, the visit is aimed at deepening cooperation between the two states from a bilateral, European and regional perspective. The agenda of the PM’s visit also includes a visit to the city of Banska Bystrica where she will hold talks with the Slovak PM and will lay a flower wreathe in the Slovak National Uprising Square. The Romanian official will also go to Zvolen, at the military cemetery where more than 10 thousand Romanian soldiers, killed in the fight for the liberation of Czechoslovakia from the Nazi occupation, are buried. (translation by L. Simion)
