Radio România Internațional

Tag: European prosecutor

  • Increased chances for Laura Codruta Kovesi

    Increased chances for Laura Codruta Kovesi

    France will withdraw its candidate
    for the position of European Chief Prosecutor and will back the candidacy
    of Laura Codruta Kovesi. The announcement was made by the Romanian Presidency
    following phone talks between presidents Klaus Iohannis and Emanuel Macron.
    Although affiliated to rival European parties, Macron promised Iohannis he
    would withdraw the candidacy of Jean-Francois Bohnert, who had been backed by
    the former Council of the European Union, presided by Romania in the first
    semester of 2019. The European Parliament instead supported Kovesi’s candidacy,
    both in the last and in the current tenures.

    European Parliament President
    David Sassoli sent a letter to the Council of the European Union, recalling the
    full support of MEPs for Romania’s candidate. Under the law, the European chief
    prosecutor is appointed jointly by the Parliament and the Council of the EU,
    for a seven-year term, which cannot be renewed. Having spearheaded the fight
    against corruption for years, but also believed to have instrumented an abusive
    prosecution system, Kovesi has often been labeled as Romania’s most powerful
    woman. Shortly before being sacked last year in June, following a
    Constitutional Court ruling, Kovesi admitted during a debate venued at the UN
    headquarters in New York, that Romania’s greatest challenge remains the
    preservation of the independence of judges and prosecutors.

    There have been
    repeated attempts at modifying anticorruption legislation to limit the
    legislative instruments used by anticorruption prosecutors or to decriminalize
    certain offences. There have been cases where requests to lift the immunity of
    politicians charged with corruption were turned down. The whole justice system
    has seen attacks by means of fake news or public statements aimed at weakening
    public credibility in the system, Kovesi said, claiming the Social-Democratic
    Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in power have tried to rein in
    the fight against corruption and subordinate magistrates. Beyond controversies,
    the facts speak volumes. In the last five years with Kovesi at its helm, the
    Directorate has prosecuted 14 ministers and former ministers and 53 MPs. Of
    these, 27 were handed final sentences. During the same period, the Directorate seized over 2.3 million dollars in assets. The recently appointed pro-European
    Prime Minister in the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, has offered Laura
    Codruta Kovesi the leadership of the Anti-graft Prosecutor’s Office in Moldova.
    Pundits believe however Kovesi is likely to become the new head of the European
    Prosecutor’s Office, which is set to begin its activity next year.

    (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • April 4, 2019 UPDATE

    April 4, 2019 UPDATE

    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)

  • March 28, 2019 UPDATE

    March 28, 2019 UPDATE

    REFERENDUM – Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis on
    Thursday announced he would call a referendum on May 26, coinciding with the
    European Parliament election. The topic will be observing the rule of law and
    the independence of the judiciary, which the President believes has been under
    constant attacks from the Social-Democratic Party in power. During this week
    the President talked to representatives of associations of judges and magistrates
    as well as civil society. Some of them have criticized the organization of a
    referendum on the same day as the European Parliament ballot, saying the
    referendum might influence the result of the election. Others have voiced the
    unequivocal support for the President’s decision.




    DANUBE – The Romanian transport minister
    Razvan Cuc and the European commissioner for transport Violeta Bulc have had
    talks in Bucharest about ways to turn the Danube river into a more attractive
    European corridor. Razvan Cuc has said his ministry will launch a tender to
    purchase a modern system to allow own dredging works, not just by third
    companies, and that increasing the river depth would lead to an increase in the
    shipment of goods via the river. The European commissioner for transport Violeta Bulc has said the Danube has great potential for the transport
    of goods and has underlined that in some EU member states inland waterways are
    used extensively. She also emphasised that in the absence of efficient roads
    and railways, Romania should develop further its Black Sea port of Constanta,
    in the south-east.




    EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
    ELECTION -
    Political parties and alliances and independent candidates in Romania had until
    Thursday to submit their candidacies for the European Parliament elections on
    the 26th of May. The candidate lists were submitted to the Central
    Election Bureau, accompanied by 200,000 support signatures in the case of
    political parties and 100,000 signatures for independent candidates. The
    Central Election Bureau is to decide by the 6th of April whether to
    accept or reject the candidacies, decisions that can be appealed until the 12th
    of April. The order of the candidates on the ballot will then be established
    based on a drawing of lots. The election campaign begins on the 27th
    of April and ends on the morning of the 25th of May.




    EUROPEAN PROSECUTOR – The second round of negotiations
    between the representatives of the Council of the European Union and of the
    European Parliament to appoint a chief European prosecutor ended without a
    breakthrough, Radio Romania’s correspondent in Brussels quotes European sources
    as saying. There are two candidates for this position: the former head of
    Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi, who has the
    backing of the European Parliament, and the French candidate Jean-François
    Bohnert, who is supported by the Council. Further talks will be held on the 4th
    or 10th of April. The appointment of the future European chief
    prosecutor must earn the approval of both the Council of the European Union and
    the European Parliament for a single 7-year term. The European Prosecutor’s
    Office is supposed to take up its functions at the end of 2020. This will be an
    independent office responsible for the investigation, prosecution and
    indictment of fraud against the EU budget.




    UNEMPLOYMENT – The
    unemployment rate went up to 4.1% in the last quarter of 2018, up by 0.2%
    compared with the previous quarter. According to the National Institute of
    Statistics, the highest unemployment level of more than 16%, was reported among
    young people aged between 15 and 24. The occupancy rate among the 15-64 age
    bracket stood at 64.5% in the period looked at, lower compared with the
    previous quarter. The employment rate was higher among men and the urban
    population. According to the National Institute of Statistics, Romania’s active
    population stood at almost 9 million people, of whom 8.5 million were in
    employment and 368,000 out of work.




    ROMANIA-FRANCE
    SEASON
    – The Romania-France Season, which opens on the 18th of April with
    Spotlight, an international festival of lights, will feature exhibitions,
    theatre and film festivals and concerts held in more than 30 towns and cities
    across Romania. The French ambassador to Bucharest Michèle Ramis
    says the event, which has been held in more than 100 towns and cities in
    France, has enjoyed immense success, with the French public rediscovering
    Romania and its artists. The Season ends on the 16th of April in
    Paris and on the 18th of April will move to Romania until the 14th
    of July.


    (translated by C. Mateescu &
    V. Palcu)

  • February 27, 2019

    February 27, 2019

    European Prosecutor — The former chief of the National Anticorruption Directorate in Romania, Laura Codruta Kovesi, received most of the votes, 26, in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs – LIBE in the EP, as she is running for the position of chief prosecutor of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. Coming next are the French Jean-Francois Bohnert with 22 votes and the German Andres Ritter with one vote. The vote followed Tuesday’s hearings in the joint Civil Liberties and Budgetary Control committees of the three candidates. Laura Codruta Kovesi had obtained most of the votes also in the Committee on Budgetary Control – CONT. The future chief prosecutor of the European Prosecutor’s Office will be appointed jointly by the EP and the Council of the EU. The European Prosecutor’s Office will be an independent and decentralized prosecution office of the European Union with competence for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to justice crimes against the EU budget, such as fraud, corruption or cross-border VAT fraud. It is to start its activity by the end of 2020.



    Justice – In 2018 big pressure was exerted on the Romanian justice system and moves to change the justice laws and the criminal codes continued, said Wednesday Romania’s prosecutor general Augustin Lazar at the Public Ministry assessment meeting. He added that last year politicians did their best and managed to dismiss the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate. The prosecutor general underlined in his speech that the proposals of the General Prosecutors’ Office representatives were ignored when legislative amendments were passed. According to Lazar, some of the amendments run counter to Romania’s international obligations and the European bodies confirmed the appropriateness of the Public Ministry’s stand on the matter. Prosecutors had to deal with 1.7 million files in 2018 of which they solved more than 500 thousand. Attending the assessment meeting, the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said that Romanians wanted to have a country without corruption. The interference of the political factor in the judiciary has become more visible, he added. Today’s meeting is taking place in the context in which hundreds of magistrates from across Romania are protesting against the new modifications brought to the justice laws through an emergency decree.



    Chisinau — The ACUM bloc will not enter a coalition in the future Moldovan Parliament either with the Democratic Party or with the Socialist Party, said Maia Sandu, the president of the Party of Action and Solidarity. She accused fraud during the election, claiming that ACUM was deprived of its votes both on the election day and ahead of the election campaign through the smear campaign and fake news launched against the pro-European opposition in Moldova. The results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova show that the Socialists’ Party got 35 MP seats in Parliament and the Democratic Party 30 seats.



    Hanoi — The American President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are meeting today in Hanoi, Vietnam. Their second meeting will take place on Thursday. The two had previously met once in Singapore last year. The principle agreement signed on that occasion on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula was not followed by any notable results, and the US insisted that sanctions against North Korea should remain in force.



    Finance — The banks’ representatives from Romania are meeting today with the finance minister Eugen Teodorovici to discuss the emergency decree no. 114 related to certain fiscal measures. The decree is contested both by the opposition and the business environment and caused discontent to banks as it introduces a tax on bank assets. The deadline for the tacit approval of the emergency decree no.114 in the Senate is March 1, after which it will be forwarded to the Chamber of Deputies, a decision-making body on the matter. (translation by L. Simion)