Justice Minister Tudorel Toader stated on Thursday that the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) represents a necessity of the continent's judiciary world, a prevention and fighting instrument against crimes with European funds.
"The need for the European Prosecutor's Office becomes more evident taking into account that it hasn't been made operational yet and the extension of the European Public Prosecutor's Office powers is already talked about in terms of preventing and fighting terrorism acts. Romania currently has, generically speaking, four European judges with the ECHR [the European Court of Human Rights], the EU Court of Justice, the EU Court House, where we already have two European judges," Minister Tudorel Toader stated at the European Conference "the Impact of the EU Regulation on establishing of the European Public Prosecutor's Office."He mentioned that the regulation based on which there will be nominated three prosecutors from Romania is being sought in order to be transposed into the national legislation.
"Somehow, Romania has this privilege to contribute to the establishment and putting into action of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, starting from unblocking the cooperation strengthened when participating in the drafting of the regulation and the fact that under the mandate of the rotating Presidency of the EU Council the European Chief Prosecutor will be appointed, the national legislation will be adopted, we will appoint the three candidates from Romania," Tudorel Toader stated.
The application deadline for the proposals was postponed until the end of March 2019, at the request of some states.
"We currently didn't finalise the legislative framework necessary for the proposals of candidates for prosecutors coming from Romania. A draft law for the appointment of candidates was drafted at the Ministry of Justice, it was made in decision-making transparency, debates were held, we are to propose the Government its adoption in the shortest time possible and send it to Parliament for enactment. (...) If it doesn't get adopted by the end of March in order to start the procedure, we have the emergency ordinance option, which Parliament can improve, including through your contributions. The appointment conditions of the three candidates will be those of the regulation, the ones transposed in the national legislation and we also consider very good professional training and full moral integrity," the Minister stated.
