Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian justice system

  • April 14, 2018 UPDATE

    April 14, 2018 UPDATE

    SYRIA– President Klaus Iohannis said on Saturday in a message he posted on Twitter that Romania further condemns the use of chemical weapons in Syria and expresses solidarity with the actions taken by its strategic partners. The Romanian Foreign Ministry also firmly condemns the use of chemical weapons in any circumstances, as the carrying out of such actions is totally unjustifiable and pleads for bringing to justice all those proven guilty of perpetrating such an act, following an investigation.The statements are made after the US, the UK and France on Sunday night launched the most massive attack against Syrian targets since the start of the civil war, in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the regime in Damascus against its own citizens. US President Donald Trump has confirmed overnight precision strikes had been launched against targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of the Syrian government. British PM Theresa May has said it is about a limited and targeted strike that does not further escalate tensions in the region and that does everything possible to prevent civilian casualties, whereas the French President, Emmanuel Macron, said the Syrian actions were a threat to collective security. Russia, which supports the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, has deplored the attack on a sovereign state but it made clear that its military facilities in Syria have not been affected by the air strikes. On the ground, also on Saturday, the security forces of the Syrian regime entered the town of Douma, the last fiefdom of the rebels in Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus. A week ago, the town was the target of an alleged chemical attack, which left over 40 people dead. The Syrian regime has denied any responsibility



    EC – The European Commission has never intervened in the trials unfolding in Romanian courts-says the EC President, Jean Claude Juncker. Thus, he answered the letter he received last month from the Romanian PM Viorica Dăncilă, in which she called for clarifications from the EC about a notification sent in 2012 to the then justice minister, regarding certain files. Juncker underlined the information requested six years ago was meant to help prepare the technical mission of November 2012, without Brussels requesting information related to the cases proper. He recalls that the CVM of the Romanian justice system included from the very beginning cooperation between the EC and the Bucharest authorities.



    STEEL MARKET – The ArcelorMittal has confirmed it might sell the Steelworks in Galati, south-eastern Romania. Alongside five other works in Italy, Macedonia, the Czech Republic, Luxemburg and Belgium, the steelworks in Galaţi is on a list that the group has forwarded to the EC. Until May 23, European experts will analyse whether the selling of the six steel works manages or not to redress the steel output of the ArcelorMittal group, as ArcelorMittal is interested in buying the largest steelworks in Europe, located in Ilva, Italy. The EC says that by purchasing the Italian steelworks, ArcelorMittal will hold a dominant position on the continental steel market, a situation which might be redressed only by selling other steelworks the group owns in Europe. Arcelor Mittal is a multinational company, considered to be the largest steel producer in the world, with 310,000 employees in 60 countries. Disquieted by the arrival of another investor, which might resort to restructuring, the trade unions on the Galati steelworks platform, with a total number of some 7,000 workers, have stated their intention to discuss the situation with PM Viorica Dăncilă.



    MADRID – The minister for the Romanians Worldwide, Natalia Intotero, is currently on a visit to Spain, where she is having talks with representatives of the central and local authorities, of the Romanian associations and religious denominations. The number of Romanian residents in Spain exceeded one million, according to official data made public at the end of 2017 by the Spanish Permanent Immigration Observer. An increase of 2.4% was registered, as compared to 2016.



    APPOINTMENT – Israeli doctor Zvi Herman Berkowits has been appointed honorary counsellor of Romanian PM Viorica Dăncilă, according to a decision published in the Official Gazette. He will not receive money for his activity. Berkowits is Romania’s honorary consul in Israel and the personal physician of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He was born in Târgu-Lăpuş, Maramureş (north-western Romania), in 1947 and graduated from the Medical School in Cluj-Napoca, central Romania. He is a specialist paediatrician and leads his own general and paediatric medicine clinic in Jerusalem.

    SPORTS- The Romanian women’s handball team SCM Craiova
    (in the south) on Saturday qualified for the EHF Cup finals, after ending in an
    18- draw the decisive match against the Turkish team of Kastamonu, on home
    turf. The Romanians had won the first match, played away from home,
    23-22. This will be the first finals to be played in the city of
    Craiova, by the local team, during its second participation in the European
    cups. The Romanian team will meet Norway’s Vipers
    Kristiansand. On Sunday in the Champions League, the
    Romanian champion, CSM Bucureşti, plays away from home, the round match in the
    quarter-finals, with the French team of Metz.In the first round played in
    Bucharest, CSM secured a clear victory, 34-21. The Romanian handballers won the
    Champions League in2016. (Translated and updated by D. Vijeu)

  • Reactions to the legal system changes

    Reactions to the legal system changes

    In only two weeks, the parliamentary majority supported by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania has finalised the legislative process meant to overhaul the judicial system. This haste has been deemed suspicious by the right-wing opposition, the main judicial institutions and members of the public, many of whom took to the streets and social networks to protest against the controversial changes to the justice legislation.



    At the end of the whole process, the leader of the Social Democrats Senate group, Serban Nicolae, said there are no new provisions justifying fears that the judicial system would fall under political control: “I would like us to note a few things. No text, proposal or amendment has been passed that may be said to politicise the judiciary, to place the act of justice under political control, and to put pressure on judges and prosecutors. Those who have opposed the laws have invoked these issues. It is very clear and I believe everybody who acts in good faith has to accept the fact that they have been lied to.



    However, the High Court of Cassation and Justice has decided to file a complaint to the Constitutional Court to verify the constitutionality of some of the provisions in the law on the status of magistrates amended by Parliament. The National Liberal Party, in opposition, has also challenged the law at the Constitutional Court.



    The vice-president of this party, Raluca Turcan: “We have filed this challenge and hope it will be successful because all regulations relating to procedures have been violated, as well as many aspects that have to do with the constitutional nature of the legislation.



    One controversial article in the new law on the status of magistrates stipulates that prosecutors and judges must be held accountable for judicial errors made in bad faith or due to grave negligence. Another disputed provision refers to the fact that the president is, from now on, only allowed one single and justified rejection of nominations for the positions of Prosecutor General and head of main prosecutor general offices. With regard to the law on the judicial organisation, an amendment that has been criticised as an attempt to curb the powers of the National Anticorruption Directorate is that on the creation of a special department investigating all types of crimes committed by magistrates. These changes and the haste with which they were made, without real discussion with all players involved in the judicial system, have generated mistrust and much concern outside Romanias borders, as well.



    The Bucharest embassies of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden have said in a joint statement that the laws on the change of the judicial system passed recently may put Romanias significant progress in the field at risk. The embassies of these seven countries call on the parties involved to avoid actions that may weaken the independence of the judicial system and the fight against corruption.



    The President of the European Peoples Party, Joseph Daul, has also criticised the changes, saying the independence of the legal system in Romania is in danger. He recalls that the separation of powers is a pillar of democracy and that the judiciary must never be placed under political control in a European Union member state. Even the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, the political family from which the junior partner in the coalition government in Bucharest says it hails from, has voiced concern about the new justice laws. (Edited by D. Vijeu)

  • The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism on Romania

    The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism on Romania

    Predominantly positive, but…there is room for improvement! That is the main conclusion of the European Commission Report on Romania’s progress in fighting corruption and reforming the judiciary, which praised the efforts undertaken and the achievements of the authorities in Bucharest, whose lassitude had attracted heat from the European institutions in the past.



    According to relevant minister Robert Cazanciuc, this report is the best in the past eight years, since the European forums started monitoring EU member Romania under what we know as the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, in short CVM.



    Efforts undertaken by National Anti-corruption Directorate, the National Integrity Agency, the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the Higher Council of Magistrates have been acknowledged by the 2014 report. The document focused on grand corruption cases, which led to the detention of leading figures from Romania’s political stage and administration. Also noteworthy was these institutions’ ability to carry on under constant political pressure.



    Robert Cazanciuc “The Impressive results obtained by the judicial institutions in the anti-corruption fight, the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the National Integrity Agency, the DNA, the Public Ministry have been acknowledged. Also remarkable is the stand of the Higher Council of Magistrates, which struggled for the independence of the country’s legal system, fighting back any moves against justices, prosecutors and institutions in general.”



    The report levels criticism though against the present Legislature. Fingers have been pointed at the MPs’ decisions to block criminal investigations against several dignitaries, the endorsement of certain laws with a view to slowing down the fight against corruption and their delay in passing the legislation that could streamline the judicial mechanism. In a quick response, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Social-Democrat Valeriu Zgonea agreed to a simplified immunity-lifting procedure for the Romanian MPs. On one condition only:



    Valeriu Zgonea “We have to do away with the requirement for Parliament approval for lifting the MPs’ immunity. I personally agree, but we cannot do that without amending the Constitution.”



    So there is still a lot to be done to insure irreversibility in the process of reforming justice and fighting corruption, mainly for the benefit of society and its citizens, as Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis has put it. On Wednesday, when the report was published, the Romanian president invited the representatives of parliamentary political parties for talks. All of them have voiced readiness for streamlining procedures for the detention, arrest or searching of the MPs. Until the next CVM report, which is to be presented within a year, Romania has plenty of time to comply with the recommendations of the European Commission.