Constitutional Court To Debate Protocol Judicial Conflict On Wednesday

The debate was postponed several times, most recently on November 14, because the author of the constitutional notification, Florin Iordache, could not take part in Wednesday’s meeting to defend the Parliament’s point of view.

Lower Chamber Deputy Chairman Florin Iordache filed the notification on October 8, after Chairman Liviu Dragnea delegated his powers to him.

The Lower Chamber states that the Public Ministry “overregulated” the Romanian Intelligence Service through a 2016 judicial collaboration protocol, by “usurping” Parliamentary competencies to transform the secret service into a prosecuting body.

Florin Iordache was one of the harshest critics of the secret protocol signed between the two institutions in late 2016, stating last months that Romania’s General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar, one of the document’s signatories, transformed SRI into a “criminal investigation body” through the document’s clauses.

The former justice minister stated in the past that the document ruled over the country’s Criminal Procedure Code, reason for which he believed it could be considered a constitutional conflict.

The protocol in question regulated judicial cooperation between the two institutions on matters of national security.