The justice laws under debate

The criminal legislation and the recently adopted justice laws have again sparked heated debates in Bucharest

Bogdan Matei, 22.10.2018, 13:22

The Venice Commission, the advisory body of the Council of Europe, has expressed concern over the amendments the ruling coalition in Romania has brought to the criminal codes. These changes seriously affect the efficiency of the judiciary and the fight against corruption. The Commission recommends Bucharest authorities to take steps so as to radically reevaluate these modifications, by means of complex and efficient consultations, with a view to obtaining a robust and coherent legislative proposal that should enjoy the wide support of Romanian society.

The Venice Commission also claims that the laws on the statute of judges and prosecutors, on judicial organization and the Superior Council of Magistracy are affecting the efficiency, quality and independence of the judiciary. Attending the debates was Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, himself a member of the Venice Commission, as well as the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies special committee on the justice laws, Social-Democrat Florin Iordache.

The two officials said the modifications are in line with Constitutional Court rulings and sentences of the European Court of Human Rights, where Romania lost several cases due to the large number of abuses in the justice and penitentiary systems. The leader of the opposition Liberal Party, Ludovic Orban, in turn expressed confidence that the latest legislative modifications only seek to politically subordinate the justice system and thwart the fight against corruption. The Liberal Party, Ludovic Orban went on to say, intends to file a no-confidence motion in Parliament against the Justice Minister.

In turn, President Klaus Iohannis believes that, in light of the latest opinion issued by the Venice Commission, Minister Toader has definitively lost credibility and should resign. On the other hand, Tudorel Toader has labeled the president’s request as inadmissible, saying that it was him, not the Justice Ministry, who promoted the modifications brought to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Minister Toader underscored the fact that, the Government’s emergency decree on the justice laws has no backdated effect and does not affect the stability of the justice system. The decree, Tudorel Toader argues, regulated the seniority prerequisite for prosecutors holding executive office with the Prosecutor General’s Office, the National Anticorruption Directorate, and the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism.

At any rate, the Justice Minister says, the decree poses no risk of shorting the staff of prosecutors’ offices, as many seem to claim. Political pundits say that for the last two years the justice laws have topped the ruling coalition’s agenda, and are now a strenuous and boring subject in Romanian society.