Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian judiciary

  • July 8, 2018 UPDATE

    July 8, 2018 UPDATE

    MEETING — Romania’s Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Tuesday is to meet EU officials, including the European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and vice-president Frans Timmermans, the European Commission reports. On Friday, Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced he would meet EU Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova in Austria. The European Commission previously announced it was closely monitoring the developments in Romania regarding the justice system and would not hesitate to take action to ensure the modifications brought to the Criminal Code observe the legislation in the field. Backed by the ruling coalition, the modifications sparked criticism from President Iohannis, the right-wing opposition and civil society, who claim that the new provisions favor criminality and are aimed at benefiting certain people, including Social-Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea.



    IMPEACHMENT — The left-wing opposition in Romania made up of the Social-Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats on Monday will decide whether they will move to impeach President Klaus Iohannis. Social-Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea, who is also the Chamber of Deputies speaker, accused the president of violating the Constitution, excessively delaying a decision to dismiss the head of the National Anticorruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi. On May 30, the Constitutional Court ruled the president must sack Kovesi, noticing a constitutional conflict between the head of state and the Government. Justice Minister Tudorel Toader had previously notified the Court after the President dismissed his request to remove Kovesi from office as ungrounded. The Court’s ruling has sparked fierce reactions from the opposition and magistrates, as well as anti-government protests.



    EXTREME WEATHER — The National Weather Administration has issued a code orange alert against heavy rain for 18 counties in the south and southwest, in place until Tuesday evening, as well as a code yellow alert for the entire country, including the capital-city Bucharest. During the interval large quantities of rainfall are expected in local areas. Hydrologists have also issued a code yellow warning against floods, in place until Monday, for the rivers in 13 counties. Temperatures are also expected to drop sharply during the interval. The National Emergency Intervention Inspectorate has announced over 20,000 firefighters with over 7,000 technical equipment are ready to intervene in calamity-stricken areas. The heavy rainfall last week caused devastating floods killing five people, destroying hundreds of homes and flooding numerous national or county roads, also affecting large areas of farmland.



    OLYMPIAD — Some 1,500 high school students from over a hundred countries on five continents are taking part in the International Mathematics Olympiad in Cluj-Napoca. The event lasts a week and is the oldest and most prestigious event of its kind. The first edition was held in 1959 in Romania. Romania and Bulgaria are the only countries that have taken part in every edition of the Olympiad. Attending the opening ceremony was President Klaus Iohannis, who expressed hope Romania would become an attraction for research in the field of mathematics.



    LIST — The Sanitary and Food Safety Authority in Romania made public a list of frozen foodstuffs sold in neighboring Hungary, infected with Listeria, a foodborne disease-causing bacteria that can lead to blood poisoning or meningitis. Nine people died in Europe after having consumed these products, with dozens of other cases reported in Great Britain, Austria, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The incubation period goes up to 70 days, with the risk of spreading still active. The European Food Safety Authority recommends the thermal processing of frozen ready-to-eat products.



    AWARD — Radu Jude’s I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians won the Crystal Globe award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic, as well as the Europa Cinemas Label award, set up in 2003 to help improve the distribution and promotion of European films. This is Radu Jude’s sixth feature film, and the first Romanian film to win the grand prize in this festival.



    WIMBLEDON — The tennis pair made up of Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu and Marcin Matkowski of Poland qualified to the round of 16 of the mixed doubles at Wimbledon, after defeating Divij Sharan of India and Alicja Rosolska of Poland, 6-3, 7-5. The two will next play Henri Kontinen of Finland and Heather Watson of Great Britain. Buzarnescu has also advanced to the women’s doubles’ round of 16, alongside another Romanian, Irina Begu. She was unfortunately knocked out from the singles’ main draw, the same as world number 1 Simona Halep.


    (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • GRECO is worried about the Romanian judiciary

    GRECO is worried about the Romanian judiciary

    The perseverance with which the government coalition formed by the leftist Social Democrats and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats is trying to amend the justice laws has led to virulent protests across Romania for more than a year now and are a constant cause for concern among Romanias foreign partners.



    On Wednesday, the Group of States against Corruption known as GRECO voiced its profound concern over various aspects of the laws on the status of magistrates, the organisation of the judicial system and the functioning of the Superior Council of Magistracy, all of which have recently been passed by Parliament. GRECO calls on Romania to give up plans to create a new special prosecutors branch meant to investigate offences in the judicial system.



    The Groups report also takes note of what it describes as the controversial process to sack the chief of the National Anticorruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi which the justice minister Tudorel Toader initiated in February. GRECO reiterates its recommendation to make the appointment and sacking of prosecutors a transparent process based on objective criteria and to give the Superior Council of Magistracy a bigger role in this procedure.



    GRECO also criticises the draft amendments to the criminal legislation that may violate some of Romanias international commitments on combating corruption. On behalf of the ruling coalition in Bucharest, the Social Democrat MP and the chair of the judicial committee in the Chamber of Deputies Eugen Nicolicea says the justice laws do not violate the independence of the magistrates, as demonstrated by the rulings of the Constitutional Court.



    Eugen Nicolicea: “If our proposal had contained such as provision, the Court would have declared the law unconstitutional. Most articles were declared constitutional, which means they do not affect the independence of the judges and prosecutors, and the few articles that have been declared unconstitutional have been declared so for different reasons.



    From the opposition, the Liberals have said that Bucharest cannot afford to ignore the GRECO report. The leader of the National Liberal Party, Ludovic Orban: “Weve decided to summon the justice minister to appear during the Governments Hour and tell the Senate and the public what he intends to do given the conclusions of the GRECO report, which are obviously linked directly to the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification, and especially to tell us to what extent he is willing to give up supporting the systematic assault conducted by the ruling parties, the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, against the independence of the judiciary and the fight against corruption.



    The Public Ministry says GRECO confirms its repeated warnings about the changes to the justice laws, which would threaten the judicial system and the rule of law in Romania.

  • EC Report on Romanian Judiciary

    EC Report on Romanian Judiciary

    On January 1st 2007 when Romania was admitted into the European Union, this country was yet to convince its western partners that it complied with all community benchmarks in the judicial field. This is why the European Commission established the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism to assess the progress made by Romania and the neighbouring Bulgaria in the reform of their judicial systems and the fight against corruption and organised crime.



    The 2015 report on Romania has been positive for the third consecutive year and, according to its government, proves the durable and sustainable nature of the countrys justice reforms and of its fight against corruption. The National Anticorruption Directorate has reported an increase in the number of signals from the public, which appears to reflect the publics confidence in this institution, something also indicated by opinion polls. Public support for action against corruption was considered to be a strong factor in the street demonstrations leading to the resignation of the Social Democrat prime minister Victor Ponta in November 2015.



    Last year, the National Anticorruption Directorate indicted more than 1,250 defendants, including prime minister Ponta himself, as well as former ministers, members of parliament, mayors, county council presidents, judges, prosecutors and a wide variety of senior officials, the European Commission report also notes.



    However, the Commission has criticised Parliament for refusing requests from the National Anticorruption Directorate for the lifting of immunity of members of parliament to allow for the opening of investigations without giving clear and consistent motivation for refusals.



    In 2016, Brussels expects Romania to focus on preventing corruption and providing the necessary conditions for judges to carry on their work. The Commission also recommends Romania to conduct a more thorough assessment of the integrity of the candidates in this years local and parliamentary elections.



    Romania is making progress towards reaching the objectives laid down in the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, says president Klaus Iohannis, adding that its commitment to the consolidation of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary is irreversible. In the opinion of the justice minister Raluca Pruna, the report gives Bucharest hope that the mechanism may be lifted in the near future. Senate speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu has described the report as unfair, while his counterpart in the Chamber of Deputies Valeriu Zgonea says the report should be a wake-up call for MPs and the way in which they have sometimes treated important matters. The latter has admitted to the need for more political will to respond to the peoples legitimate desire to see Parliament represent their interests.

  • The Romanian Judiciary

    The Romanian Judiciary

    The activity of Romania’s main institutions in charge of monitoring and combating corruption has reported an impressive impetus and has resulted in an increased public confidence in the justice system. This is the main conclusion of the European Commission report assessing progress reported by Romania over the year 2014 under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. Set up in 2007 with Romania’s EU accession, the mechanism analyses progress in key fields deemed necessary to bridge the existing gaps in terms of reform of the judiciary and combating corruption.



    This year was the first when the Commission made public the report in the press, without organizing a press conference, and the second year in a row when the report is mainly positive. Romania has reported continuous progress in numerous fields, which reflects sustainable reforms. However, the Commission still believes that any progress in terms of reforms must be consolidated and grounded on stronger foundations.



    Radio Romania’s Brussels correspondent Cerasela Radulescu gave us more details about the document’s conclusions: “The European Commission hails the positive cooperation with Romanian authorities over the course of last year. The report highlights the implementation of the new codes of civil and criminal procedure and underscores the pragmatic actions of the Government and the Justice Ministry in particular. Additionally the document points to the consensus for reform and confidence that progress must be upheld at the current level. The first vice-president of the Commission claims that combating corruption remains the greatest challenge and a top priority for Romania, praising the progress registered last year”.



    Another praiseworthy point in the report is the activity of such institutions as the National Integrity Agency (ANI), the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) and the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which handled top-level corruption cases involving high-profile figures from the public administration and political parties who eventually ended up behind bars.



    At the opposite pole, Parliament got the most criticism, particularly for voting against lifting the immunity of certain MPs. Just like the previous reports, this one disapproves of the soaring number of emergency ordinances issued by the Government, as well as of its failure to comply with emergency criteria.



    In addition, the Ombudsman is rebuked for its lack of action and the fact that he did not challenge some of the Government’s ordinances. Beyond this criticism, however, Bucharest reported continuous progress in several areas.



    As a matter of fact, this year’s report is the most positive since Romania has been monitored. Things are heading in the right direction, and this is also reflected in a Flash Eurobarometer conducted in November 2014, according to which a growing number of Romanians have reported an improvement in recent years.



    Sharing in that opinion is also the head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi: “The report once again confirms the quality of the activity of the Directorate and underscores the diversity of corruption investigations conducted in 2014. Also mentioned in the report is the rising public confidence our institution enjoys at present, transparent in the high number of notifications and complaints we receive every day”.



    With respect to the independence of the judiciary, the European Commission recommends Romania a number of measures, such as appointing a new chief prosecutor at the helm of the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crimes and Terrorism grounded on transparent and merit-based criteria. Bucharest needs good results in the justice field in order for the Commission to lift the mechanism for cooperation and verification, commonly seen as the main obstacle to our country’s Schengen Accession.



    Romania belongs to the free-travel area, president Klaus Iohnnis recently said. “The full European integration of Romania is key to my term in office, and that means Schengen accession and joining the Eurozone. Romania’s place is in Schengen, as a member with full and equal rights. We have complied with all accession criteria, and all obstacles right now are of a purely political character”, president Iohannis went on to say. The president believes that the greatest shortcomings of EU Member States are not linked to the budget, but to the lack of trust between partners, which leads to discrimination. “I believe we can move past that point. It is our partners’ duty to be fair in their assessments and in implementing regulations. We trust these regulations, we know they are being observed and that they don’t reflect fleeting interests” the Romanian President also added.



    The European Commission is due to publish its next report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism in about a year’s time.