Judges Forum: The President, Gov't and Parliament break international entities' recommendations

The Judges' Forum in Romania Association stated that the President, the Government and the Parliament violated the recommendations of the international entities necessary to be fulfilled for the minimum functioning of the rule of law in Romania.

"The President, the Government and the Parliament of Romania violated without explanation the recommendations of all relevant international entities necessary to be fulfilled for the minimum functioning of the rule of law in Romania. (...) On the one hand, the statements and intentions of the Minister of Justice, revealed during the hearing in the joint parliamentary committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate with a view to investing the new Government, to delay any modifications made to the "laws of justice", under the guise of an imminent election campaign, are unacceptable and prove that the Government, the same as Parliament, have no real intention to implement the recommendations that were made by all the relevant international entities (Venice Commission, GRECO, Consultative Council of European Judges,Consultative Council of European Prosecutors, the European Commission), which basically shows that in Romania the rule of law functions below the minimum parameters accepted in a consolidated democracy," the Forum of Judges said in a statement of the Association.

According to the same source, the claims of the Minister of Justice, who said that the negative opinions issued by the Prosecutors Section of the Superior Council of Magistracy as part of the procedure of appointing prosecutors in top management positions would be "a tendency to de facto give of a prerogative that belongs to the Ministry of Justice, respectively the prerogative of making the proposals for the respective offices," prove "a blatant disregard of the recommendations of the latest MCV reports."

The Judges' Forum argues that the head of state did not listen to the reports of the European Commission issued within the CVM regarding the observance of the negative opinions of the Superior Council of Magistracy - Section for prosecutors on the appointment in senior high-ranking prosecutors's offices, until the establishment of a new legislative framework in compliance with the recommendation for the implementation of a robust and independent system of appointing high-ranking prosecutors, based on clear and transparent criteria, with the support of the Venice Commission.

According to the press release, the "foreseeable failure" cannot be ignored when fulfilling the conditionalities necessary to access the Schengen Area through actions or lack of action that cancel the efforts made by the Romanian authorities to respect the European partners, which have been constantly running in the recent years.

"In addition, we refer to the new regime of conditionality for the granting of European funds, which will be introduced to correct the generalized obvious deficiencies regarding the good governance of the Member States regarding the observance of the rule of law, Romania being in danger of losing huge amounts," the Association added.