Romania’s High Council Of Magistrates Worked Intensely In '08 To Reform Judiciary

“The year 2008 was characterized by the intense effort the High Council of the Magistrates made to reform the legal system, to increase the transparency of the legal act, to get closer to citizens, to stimulate and develop mechanisms unifying the legal practice to improve work conditions for the magistrates and, through them, to render the justice act more efficient once the human resources strategy was adopted and the new codes were approved,” Barbulescu said.

Last year, the council consolidated its role as disciplinary council, as it wanted to sanction the attitudes of some magistrates which breached their statute and their mission they were responsible for when they entered the system, Barbulescu said.

The institution’s purpose last year was also to enforce the measures regarding the judiciary and those agreed upon with European and other partners within post-integration cooperation mechanisms, she added.

The council also tried to develop tight relations of cooperation and partnership with the organisms of the other powers in the state, to establish a partnership relation with the media and to enforce a communication strategy for the council and the legal system.

Last year, the plenary of the council had 36 meetings and adopted 1495 decision, while the Department of Judges made 563 decisions and the Department of Prosecutors made 472 decisions, in 37 meetings each.

“After January 1, 2007, when Romania became a full member of the European Union, progress recorded by the activity of the Council was further monitored by the European Commission, via by-monthly reports regarding the status of the fulfillment of the main measures the High Council of the Magistrates, the National Institute of the Magistrates and the National School of Registrars. These reports were drawn up throughout 2008, and carried on the activity begun in 2007,” Barbulescu said.

According to her, the institution was in permanent dialogue with the representative of the European Commission in charge of the monitoring process.

The council aims at the adoption of the new procedure codes, the unification of jurisprudence, the consolidation of the institutional capacity of the council. The council also wants to render the activity of the members more responsible, to increase the transparency of the justice act and to improve the human resources policy.

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