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Main Prosecutors’ Agencies Voice Concern With Recent Judicial Decree

Romania’s top prosecutors’ agencies expressed concerns with an emergency decree amending judicial bills announced by Justice Minister Tudorel Toader on Tuesday, especially on provisions which block delegations in top roles and alters the procedure of appointing and dismissing chief prosecutors.
Main Prosecutors’ Agencies Voice Concern With Recent Judicial Decree
Ionut Preda
20 feb. 2019, 19:09, English

The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) issued a statement on Wednesday in which it announced that the project was not subject to an “honest dialogue” with representatives of the magistracy, and that the agency itself had yet to receive an official version of the decree.

It also said that one of the decree’s provisions, which forbidss delegations to top prosecutors’ offices, leaves the agency in danger of losing all of its chief prosecutors within a month, with its current interim chief Calin Nistor also having been delegated to the office in the lack of a full-time chief prosecutor.

General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar also voiced concern on these subjects in a statement issued on Tuesday, warning that they could lead to severe institutional blockages and that the decree ignores several recommendations made by the EU’s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) report, the Venice Commission and GRECO.

He also pointed out that an amendment which shifts the act of reviewing procedures for appointing and dismissing top prosecutors to the plenary of top judicial watchdog CSM, instead of its Prosecutors’ Section as was the case until now, expresses an “inconsequential” approach on the principle of separating the careers of prosecutors and judges.

Top anti-terrorism and organized crime agency DIICOT voted unanimously in its General Assembly on Wednesday to support the general prosecutor’s stance on the matter.

Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced the decree on Tuesday, arguing that some of its amendments were request by CSM.

The bill contains also contains several changes to the contest for admission into the National Institute of Magistracy (INM) and the attributions of the Supreme Court’s Section for Investigating Judicial Offences (SIIJ) chief-prosecutor, and extends the eligibility criteria for top prosecutor offices to judges who previously worked as prosecutors.

As of Wednesday evening, the decree was not yet published in the country’s Official Journal.