Romanian Min Deems Upcoming EC Report Null, Insignificant For Country’s Legal Sys

"The Commission’s upcoming report on the justice system has nothing to do with Romania. I said that even in February. Several EC clerks sit comfortably at their desks and keep writing about all sorts of things, whereas we are the ones actually living in Romania and we do know how things stand in the Romanian justice system. You will all read the report and think it speaks about other country. The report is null and void and it represents nothing for Romania's legal system. Romanian authorities are focused on concrete issues only," Ponta said.

 

Ponta also spoke about salaries in the legal system, considering that justice minister Catalin Predoiu also attends the meeting, and stressed that magistrates are more than entitled to push for certain salary rights.

 

Predoiu said Saturday in  a TV show on Realitatea TV that he would discuss with the social democrat and democrat liberal members of the ruling coalition both the Commission’s upcoming report on Romania’s justice system and core financial issues in the legal system.

 

On July 17, Romanian President Traian Basescu signed the decrees promulgating the country’s new Civil Code and Criminal Code.

 

The Romanian government assumed responsibility in Parliament for the Criminal and Civil Codes on June 22.

 

However, the Civil Procedure Code and the Criminal Procedure Code are still pending debates in Parliament after lawmakers decided in the plenary meeting on June 22, to extend the mandate of the special committee analyzing the legal codes until September 15 this year.   

 

According to a draft report of the European Commission on the Romanian justice system, whose official version will be published on July 22, the adoption of the Criminal and Civil Codes in June represents "a true political commitment and a major step towards a more efficient legal system."

 

The draft report says, however, the two codes are expected to come into effect along with their procedure codes in 2011 "after being debated and approved in a normal parliamentary procedure."