Reactions to new justice legislation
Changes to the justice system, proposed by Minister Tudorel Toader, have prompted protests and criticism.
Corina Cristea, 24.08.2017, 13:04
A comprehensive judicial reform plan made public on Wednesday by the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has sparked tough reactions, with President Klaus Iohannis going as far as describing it as “an attack against the rule of law.
The initiative, which comes 6 months after the left-of-centre government tried to loosen the anticorruption laws, stipulates, among other things, the narrowing of the powers of the National Anticorruption Directorate, which under the new bill would no longer be entitled to investigate judges.
The proposed changes concern a variety of areas, from the procedure to appoint chief prosecutors to the set-up of a special unit to prosecute offences committed by magistrates. The President was quick to react. “If this mix of measures gets passed by the Cabinet and endorsed by Parliament, Romanias efforts during these past 10 years will be wiped away, and the judiciary will be thrown back to a time when it was subordinated to politics, he said.
At present, it is the President who appoints the chief prosecutors, based on nominations made by the Justice Minister and the approval of the Superior Council of Magistrates, the institution that safeguards the independence of the judiciary. Under the proposed bills, the President would be left out of this procedure. Furthermore, Toader wants the justice minister, who, as a cabinet member, represents the executive power, to be in charge of the judicial inspection corps. Analysts and magistrates alike see this as an interference of political factors in the judicial system, and the General Prosecutors Office says prosecutors have not been consulted on these alarming proposals.
In turn, politicians reacted to the announcement. The main opposition party, the National Liberal Party, says that the changes in the justice laws are unconstitutional, insofar as they affect the separation of powers, and that they disregard both the will of the people, so strongly expressed in the streets early this year, and Romanias international commitments. In turn, the Save Romania Union firmly condemns the changes announced by Minister Tudorel Toader and plans a motion against him in Parliament.
In Brussels, the former Justice Minister Norica Nicolai, currently an MEP in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, believes however that this is a good step forward and hopes the bill to be endorsed quickly and to take effect in 2018, so as to have the European Commission suspend the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. On the other hand, another MEP, Monica Macovei, herself an ex-justice minister, argues that Minister Tudorel Toaders bill brings “changes that are fatal to the judiciary and the country.
(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)
