Premium
Creating a citizen-friendly justice system was the main subject of Monday's meeting of European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova and Romania's Justice Minister Alina Gorghiu, where also attending were heads of Romania's major prosecutor's offices.
According to a press statement released by the Justice Ministry on Monday, as part of a visit to Romania at the Ministry of Justice, Vice President of the European Commission Vera Jourova had a meeting with Justice Minister Alina Gorghiu, in the presence of the leadership of judiciary organisations: Daniel Gradinaru, chairman of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM:); Attorney General Alex Florenta; Marius Voineag, chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Agency (DNA), and Alina Albu, chief prosecutor of the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terror (DIICOT). The main subject was creating a citizen-friendly justice system, which is a shared interest of Romania and the European Commission.
Gorghiu thanked Jourova for the constant partnership with her and the European Commission and assured her that the justice system in Romania is reliable, robust, like the justice system in any other European Union member state.
She also said that the closing of the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) was "a key moment, a strategic objective ticked off by Romania."
"Also, the adoption of justice legislation was an essential point for the justice system of Romania. The Report on the Rule of Law monitors all EU member states and means, as the vice-president of the European Commission said, equal treatment for all member states. The same check for everyone! We will continue to modernise and improve our judiciary. We are careful to make further substantial, solid progress. We are careful to adopt predictable legislation, to have sustained DNA activity, DIICOT activity on important topics, from drug trafficking to human trafficking," Gorghiu is quoted as saying in the press statement.
Also discussed at the meeting were recommendations from the Report on the Rule of Law, special pensions legislation, as well as the measures for the adequate provision of human resources, considering that in March 2024, there will be about 600 new magistrates in the system as a result of them passing the relevant exam and the magistracy admission exam after five years of seniority.
Important European issues were also on the agenda: the directive on combatting violence against women, the Media Freedom Act, the directive on the protection of journalists and human rights activists - the Anti-SLAPP directive, proposed measures for digital transformation, artificial intelligence and combatting cyber-crimes such as child pornography and hate speech.
Jourova is quoted as thanking Romania for its way of supporting making the Russian Federation accountable for the war in Ukraine.
