Top Judicial Watchdog Requests Government To Urgently Repel Judicial Decree

The institution’s plenary voted in favor of the request with 12 votes for, three against and one nullified.

This comes after CSM sources told MEDIAFAX on Monday that the body’s chairman, Lia Savonea, will take part in talks on the subject with Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Monday, despite the fact that multiple major magistrates’ associations announced that they will boycott the meeting.

Multiple prosecutor’s officse throughout the country and top anti-terrorism agency DIICOT have announced temporary suspensions of non-urgent activity in protest against the decree, which they say will affect the stability and functioning of Romania’s judicial system.

Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced the decree in question last week and presented several of its amendments, mainly regarding the criteria for appointing top prosecutors.

In addition, the bill 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 blocks delegations into top prosecutor roles.

The decree amends the procedure for appointing top prosecutors, with candidacies to be reviewed by CSM’s plenary, instead of the institution’s Prosecutors’ Section, as was the case until now.

It also extends the eligibility criteria for top prosecutor offices to judges who have previously been prosecutors, instead of only prosecutors who are active at the time of the nomination.

CSM announced last week that it only requested a couple of the provisions included in the bill.

The act was criticized by Romania’s main prosecutors’ offices, but also by CSM’s Prosecutors’ Section and by the National Union of Romanian Judges. The institutions accused that the bill’s provisions might block the agencies’ activities and infringe on the principle of separating the careers of judges and prosecutors.

 

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