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The Minister of Justice, Cătălin Predoiu, announced the public debate, until March 31, 2021, of the reform proposals of the three Justice laws. Proposed changes include abolishing the Special Section, increasing the mandate of the prosecutor’s office from 3 to 4 years, changing the way SCM members are elected, and changing the way they work, lowering the threshold for seniority for high-ranking prosecutors from 15 to 12 years, the elimination of the president’s restriction to reject proposals from the Ministry of Justice, the elimination of the early retirement scheme for magistrates, now suspended. Another provision is that the prosecutor dismissed from the senior management position can appeal in the contentious court the decree of the President of Romania for the dismissal of his post.
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The Minister of Justice said that the entire Judicial Branch is invited to debate these projects, until March 31, 2021, the ultimate goal of these changes being “to restore the right of citizens to have functional justice.”
The main changes proposed to the 3 laws, presented by Predoiu:
- Strengthening the role of the SCM in organizing competences, through the INM, assigning competencies to the INM
- Elimination of the modalities of entering the judiciary without competition, except retired magistrates in courts with a large number of vacancies
- The magistrates’ early retirement plan, now suspended, is abolished
- Lower the seniority threshold for senior prosecutors
- Raise to the status of law some procedures for the appointment of high-ranking prosecutors: the obligation to motivate the Romanian president’s refusal to appoint, setting a period of 60 days for the issuance of presidential decrees in the procedure for the appointment / revocation of management positions
- Possibility of challenging in court the revocation decree in the case of the high-ranking prosecutor
- Elimination of the role of the MFP in the procedures of material error of the magistrates
- Return to the judge’s access to the ICCJ through a contest. Now it’s through the interview
- The dual specialization requirement of ICCJ judges
- Increased driving time from 3 to 4 years.
- Increase the role of the Attorney General
Modifications to the law on judicial organization:
- Abolition of the Criminal Crimes Investigation Section. The preliminary draft regulates the form of transfer of judicial cases to the other prosecutors, the situation of the personnel of the structure, other transitory provisions, the legal regime of the different procedural / procedural acts carried out in the process.
- The detailed regulation of the reasons for revocation, as well as the procedure for revocation of the designated prosecutors within DNA and DIICOT, being criteria established to verify the form of improper exercise of the specific attributions of the position.
- Abandon the solution on the composition of the panels on appeal by 3 judges and return to the formula of 2 judges
- Limit the possibility of overturning the prosecutor’s solution by the hierarchically superior prosecutor to the reasons of illegality
- Elimination of restrictions on the freedom of expression of magistrates, introduced in 2018
- Detailed appointment procedure within DIICOT / DNA, standardizing the rules of recruitment / selection of prosecutors of the two directorates, from the perspective of the appointment conditions (professional training, reputation, absence of disciplinary sanctions in the last 3 years, at least 7 years in the position of prosecutor / judge and they have been declared admitted after a contest organized in accordance with this law and the regulations approved by Order of the Attorney General of the PICCJ, being the contest organized by DIICOT, respectively DNA, consistent in an interview to be broadcast live electronically)
- Clarifications on the audit of the distribution of court cases
- The standardization of the regulations on base salary and increases for police officers and judicial agents attached to the Public Ministry, establishing that the base salary and increases for judicial police officers and agents attached to the Public Ministry are those provided for judicial police and agents within the DNA, legislative intervention is based on equity considerations
Proposals on CSM:
- The general and common aspects of the career of magistrates are the competence of the Plenary, the specific ones of the career – of the two sections.
- The system of election of the members by ballot, which must be chosen by all judges or prosecutors, not only by those in the courts or prosecutors to which they belong, as it is now.
- Review of the rules relating to the management of the Judicial Inspection – the form of selection of the heads of IJ, through competition. The directors of the IJ departments will also be appointed through the competition.
- Go to an operating system in 2 ordinary and extraordinary sessions in the SCM, if necessary. In the intersessional period, SCM members conduct their business in court. It would apply after the expiration of the current SCM term.
- INM- the return to the traditional 2-year course system, compared to 4 years ago
- Seniority threshold for senior prosecutors reduced from 15 to 12 years.
- His term, increased from 3 to 4 years.
- The restriction on the president’s right to reject proposals from the Ministry of Justice was eliminated
- The hierarchically superior prosecutor may contest the prosecutor’s solution of the case only on the basis of legality, not on the basis of soundness, as it is now
- These projects are a vision, we will dwell on them until we have a broad consensus. We will also propose a methodology and a discussion calendar. We will also consult with the European Commission.
questions:
- MJ’s fight against justice has not stopped. There are no reservations. I trust the installed administration to reboot a system at some point
- We are in a phase in which we must find an anti-corruption advance
- I am convinced that we will soon have cases that are reaching the stage of being sent to court. This is not the time to lose confidence
- The special section was a mistake, regardless of the reasons. It is the wrong solution. Beyond the famous mistakes, the main problem is that it cannot provide a sufficient level of anti-corruption. It cannot be done physically with a few prosecutors located in Bucharest.
- He estimated that the projects will be debated by the new parliament after March 1.
Are you starting the process for the position of chief prosecutor of DIICOT or are you waiting for the new law to come into force?
- We will release at some point. We must weigh whether we are waiting for the new laws or prioritizing an objective to stabilize this function in some way.
- It also depends on how everyone knows how to cooperate, we have set a period of 6 months to debate the laws, but no one prevents us from getting along faster.
- Now the situation is different: we do not have a whole plethora of empty positions, we have a single position, the institution is already operating at a work rate, it also has a substitute
- It is not an emergency of such gravity as to say that we must do something tomorrow. This does not mean that the problem should be neglected.
- Such a long time frame is not reasonable, it needs to be weighed, I’ll let you know
- I will also consult the Attorney General, SCM – Prosecutors Section. I don’t want to make a decision until then
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These are the modifications introduced in the three laws of justice: Law 303 of the statute of judges and prosecutors, Law 304/2004 of judicial organization and Law 317/2004 of the Superior Council of the Magistracy.
On Wednesday evening, President Klaus Iohannis spoke about the reparation bills aimed at correcting the laws of justice, saying that Romania has many backlogs, including the MCV and GRECO recommendations, which should be implemented as soon as possible, but that “The current PSD majority in Parliament demonstrated that any well-intentioned project can be destroyed in just a few days.” “It will take another majority to adopt coherent laws of justice. The projects have the role of restoring the mechanisms of justice functioning on the proper foundations,” said Iohannis.
The EC also points out that the Criminal Investigation Section in Justice (SIIJ) remains in place, despite criticism. The current Minister of Justice has initiated consultations on a preliminary draft to abolish the SIIJ, but both the COVID-19 pandemic and the political situation have prevented these steps and the SIIJ continues to operate, the EC added.
“Despite Romania’s progress in fighting corruption in the last decade, the challenges facing the judiciary in 2017-2018 have raised doubts about the sustainability of anti-corruption reforms,” the EC said.
According to the report, even if the current political context involves fewer disputes, key justice institutions face challenges, with an impact on the implementation of the legal framework and on institutional capacity.
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