Romanian Civil Society Threatens To Take Govt To Court Over Legal Codes

On Monday, the NGOs announced the official launch of the campaign “Stop the codes”. Georgiana Iorgulescu, the director of the Center for Legal Resources (CRJ) stated that the process of contentious administrative against the Government could be started this week.

Iorgulescu said that the exact date will be set following meetings with the Prime Minister and the Minister for Justice, which are both scheduled for Tuesday.

The “Stop the codes” campaign aims to convince the Government that the four codes contain provisions which are “unclear, abusive and undemocratic.”

“There are serious theoretical and drafting errors,” said Victor Alistar, the head of Transparency International Romania.

Apart from the legal undertaking against the Government, the members of the NGO alliance intend to complain to several European or international institutions.

The NGOs have sent an common open letter to the President, the leaders of the two Chambers of Parliament and its group leaders detailing their objections to the current form of the codes.

Last Tuesday, several NGOs submitted a preliminary complaint, asking Prime Minister Emil Boc to pull back the civil, criminal, civil procedure and criminal procedure codes from under the debate of the Parliament, claiming they are seriously flawed.

The preliminary complaint is signed by the Center for Legal Resources and the Human Rights Association of Romania – Helsinki Committee (APADOR-CH) and is supported by eleven other NGOs: Transparency International Romania, the Institute for Public Policies, the Romanian Journalists Association, the Romanian “MediaSind” Journalist Federation, the Center for Independent Journalism, the Romanian Press Club, the Press Monitoring Agency, the Center of Assistance for Non-Government Organizations (CENTRAS), the Romanian Audio-Video Communications Association (ARCA), the Center for Public Participation Resources (CRPP) and the Pro Democratia Association (APD).