The government adopted the GEO to postpone the entry into force of the three-judge panels

Justice Minister Stelian Ion announces that the Government adopted, at Wednesday’s meeting, a GEO ordering the postponement of the application of the legal provisions on the composition of the appeal panels, both in civil and criminal matters. Ion claims that if the number of judges had increased, as of January 1, 2021, there would have been blockages.

“Today we approved in the Government an emergency ordinance ordering the postponement of the application of the legal provisions on the composition of the appeal panels, both in civil and criminal matters. The increase since 01.01.2021 in the number of judges who The resources of the judges (3 judges instead of 2) would have the effect of producing serious blockages in the activity of the courts, the overcrowding of the activity of the judges, with negative consequences in the duration of the resolution of the trials in a reasonable time, “he wrote this Wednesday. , on Facebook, Minister Stelian Ion.

It specifies that the normative act has both the favorable opinion of the SCM and the Legislative Council.

Since we took office, we have analyzed the possible ways to solve this serious problem and have come to the conclusion that there is no time to intervene legislatively in Parliament, because not all the legal deadlines would be met for the law to enter into force on 01.01.2021. Therefore, the only option to avoid these problems continues to be the emergency ordinance ”, the minister also specified.

He also made a series of clarifications on the adoption of a GEO in the field of justice, despite the 2019 referendum:

– The purpose of this referendum was to protect criminal legislation and the organization of the judiciary from unexpected and harmful interventions that, during the referendum, seemed imminent.

– A referendum organized with the clear objective of protecting the values ​​protected by criminal law and protecting the judiciary from brutal interventions cannot be invoked for the opposite purpose.

– As the Constitutional Court made very clear (Sentence no. 2/2019 validating the referendum, DCC no. 28/2020, section no. 47), the referendum organized on 05/26/2019 was a consultative referendum, with political effects, not Legally, and from the political point of view, the adoption of this emergency ordinance represents an act of responsibility, in favor of the judicial system, exactly in the spirit of this referendum.

– Due to its content, the GEO adopted today does not contain substantive regulations, through which to amend the judicial institutions (we do not repeal the SIIJ, for example, by the GEO), but rather only has the objective of extending the entry into force of provisions related to the good administration of Justice.

– I remember that, at the beginning of the pandemic, the Government had to approve another emergency ordinance that, formally, seemed to contradict the referendum of 05.26.2020. This is GEO no. 28/2020 by which the Penal Code was modified and supplemented. Then there were no comments, although the situation was the same in relation to the referendum.

“Of course, this legislative measure will be used in the political struggle in all senses. The truth is that the measure is absolutely beneficial and necessary for the Judiciary and all the constitutional conditions for its adoption by GEO are met,” he added the minister.

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