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Justice Minister Tudorel Toader announced at Victoria Palace five amendments to OUG 7/2019 on the laws of justice, including the repeal of the provisions of Article 54, paragraph 1, stating that "it goes back to the regulation before Ordinance 7, in the sense that only prosecutors can become high-ranking prosecutors, even though in their previous professional career they have also been judges, with a 15-year seniority in magistracy."
"Listening to the arguments and counter-arguments, seeing the reactions at the level of the judiciary and partly in the civil society (...), the following five amendments were agreed: firstly, the repeal of the provisions of Article 54, paragraph 1, that is to say, the return to the regulation before Ordinance 7, in the sense that only prosecutors can become high-ranking prosecutors, even though in their previous professional career they have also been judges, with a 15-year seniority in magistracy, and the advisory opinion will continue to be issued by the Prosecutor's Section within the CSM [Superior Council of Magistrates, ed.n.] and not by the CSM plenary - as stipulated in Ordinance 7. The second amendment agreed upon - the repeal of a paragraph 7 index 1 of article 57 prohibiting delegations to senior leadership positions. The third amendment agreed upon - the waiving of the reason why the quality of magistrate could be lost if what is called good reputation was lost," said Tudorel Toader.
According to him, the fourth amendment to OUG 7 comes from the direction of IT specialists, who have pointed out that although they carry out similar activities, that are required by the judiciary, they receive different pay. According to the amendment, IT specialist in the judiciary will have the same payroll "because they are specialists in the field".
Toader added that the fifth amendment, which came as a proposal from the Judicial Inspection, aims to achieve a legislative correlation.
"It was foreseen before the amendment of OUG 7 that the judicial inspector ordered the commencement of the judicial investigation if there were indications of judicial commission, but this was also allowed to the Minister of Justice, the Prosecutor General and the President of the High Court. (...) The only one who can start the investigation is only the one who is the subject, the holder of the disciplinary action, it is thus about a legislative correlation," Toader explained.
